Insecurities 1
by aidan bard
Summary: The five boys are growing up, trying to juggle work, school, field assignments, crazy sisters and everything else. Inbetween they have to work out the insecurities that are tearing apart their relationships.
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Insecurities 1 (Sequel to Forged Together)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Gundam wing universe or any of the original characters. I'm doing this for fun.

**Pairing:** 3x4 1x2x5 (in all combinations).** This is the sequel to Forged Together which is also under my pen name. You'll have to read that to understand how the pairings came about. **

**Warnings:** Yaoi, Romance (if you can call it that), angst, humor, AU as in Endless Waltz didn't happen

**Rating:** NC 17

**Archive:** wwwfanfictionnet, wwwmediaminerorg., my lj under aidannwn

**Betaed :**by Stray (greyhunter)

**Summary:** The five boys are growing up, trying to juggle work, school, field assignments, crazy sisters and everything else. In-between they have to work out the insecurities that are tearing apart their relationships.

**Update rate:** Once a week. May need prodding. Sorry, people busy at work but needed to get this online.

1.1: Wufei in drag

When Lady Une found out that the Gundam pilots had decided to rent apartments of their own, she had not been surprised. She had, after all, expected them to act independently and true to their nature. However, since they were all teenagers with very little exposure to everyday life (and since she was technically keeping an eye on them) she had decided to inspect their living quarters in her spare time. It was the least she could do after all the things they'd done for her.

Or so she had thought.

However, she was standing in the middle of the apartment shared by Yuy, Chang and Maxwell trying to think logically about what she was seeing. "Heero," Lady One tried once more. "This place is so far away from the school … the University …and the Headquarters."

"Hn," Heero said blankly. Obviously she had not worded a question so there was not much use of him answering.

"Why did you choose this place?" she asked instead.

"It's cheap and has three bedrooms," Heero replied

"Er…couldn't you have found some other place, closer?" she asked. Where she could keep a close eye on these three. In his own way, each was more trouble than ten criminals thrown together, even without their Gundams, and she felt uneasy about the whole setup. There was also the feeling she was missing out on something, only she had no idea what.

"No," Heero said firmly, in his no-nonsense voice.

"Yes, but Mr. Winner and Mr. Barton have found apartments closer to the training facility…so may be you could also follow suit and rent apartments from the same complex," she suggested as gently as possible. After all, she was funding them so expenses were not a problem though they were all being stubborn when it came to accepting her money.

"No," Heero growled. "We like it here."

"Fine." Lady Une could smell defeat when she saw it and she was not about to try and force her hand. She didn't want to know what Heero Yuy equivalent of self destruction was when it came to apartments…blow up a wall perhaps. "Can I have a look around to see if everything is all right?" she asked instead.

Heero shrugged to show that he didn't care, which she took as an agreement to inspect the premises. She looked around the sitting room she was standing in, Spartan by many standards with a minimum of furniture. The house they had rented was old but had been well maintained. There were cobwebs and dust collected in the corners but the walls looked firm and though the ceiling was grimy, it did not look as if it would fall on top of someone's head.

"What's through there?" she asked, pointing to a door on the left of the sitting room.

"Kitchen," Heero said shortly as Une made her way toward it. She pushed open the door and stepped into a relatively clean kitchen, one large table in the middle taking up most of the space. Lady Une frowned trying to remember the floor plan she had looked up before she had left her office.

"Why do you have the table here?" she asked confused. "The floor plan suggests a large dinning room beyond this." She indicated towards a door leading from the kitchen. Actually there were several doors but one looked like a pantry door and the other led outside to a porch overlooking a neglected garden.

"We've converted the dinning room to a gym," Heero said making her jump. She had had no idea that he was standing right behind her until he had spoken.

"The bedrooms?" she asked as she looked at him.

"This way," said Heero leading her out of the kitchen and back through the sitting room. He walked into a bare room with a sleeping bag on the floor. "This is mine," he said without any further explanation.

"Uh," Lady Une managed. They had moved in the day before so she decided to keep her counsel on buying a bed just to see if he would think of it by himself. There was a study table, chair and laptop, along with a few books which made the room look occupied. "Is that the attached bathroom?" she asked pointing to a door, hoping it wasn't a walk in closet.

"Only one of the bathrooms has plumbing," Heero said, motioning with his head that they should be moving on. "The one attached to Wufei's room."

Lady Une walked through Chang's room trying to ignore the stack of white clothes in the corner and the sleeping bag in the middle next to a meditation mat. There were books stacked on the table, the floor, the window sill and even on the sleeping bag. And in contrast, the bathroom was…bare.

It lacked all the beauty products normal teenagers would use; only a large bottle of shampoo, three toothbrushes and a single tube of toothpaste. Lady Une stared at the toothpaste for some time then finally said, "You share everything."

"All," Heero said in a pleased voice.

"You share all," Lady Une said trying to understand. "I guess, that's nice." She did not even want to know what Maxwell's room was going to look like. Black with gold crosses painted on the wall? "I…have to go back to office," she said faintly. "Perhaps you would like a lift."

She knew that Chang was the only one having classes that afternoon while Winner and Maxwell were already at the Training Center after their classes. Barton had gone to the Spaceport to pick up his sister and would be coming with her to the center, which had left Yuy. Heero had an odd combination of subjects which left most of his Wednesday free and had agreed to her request that he be present at their new home for her assessment of their living quarters.

"All right," Heero spoke a little grudgingly, almost as if Une had asked him to donate a kidney.

Une shrugged. Knowing Heero Yuy, if he ever lost a kidney, he'd probably be able to grow another.

---!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!---

The ride to The Peace Keepers' headquarters was spent in silence, with Heero observing his surroundings as if expecting a squadron of mobile dolls to attack them at any second. Une gave him a sideways glance, noting the uniform he wore; plain grey long sleeved shirt with a stiff, high necked collar, no adornments, black trousers and knee high black boots, which were the only thing that stood out. The boots were expensive and hardy but after her years as a commanding officer, Lady Une understood that soldiers needed good footwear. So did sixteen-year olds going on seventeen.

When they arrived, they parked in the underground parking lot and rode to ground level with the elevator. As they walked down the sterilized hallway towards her office, Lady Une studied Heero discreetly. His hair was still messy, but he had grown a couple of inches in height. His eyes were darting from side to side taking in all the people walking in the corridors, his attention remaining fixed on the new volunteers. She held her breath, wondering just when Heero would make and observation. After all he was still a teenager and …

"So many girls." He sounded more nervous than pleased.

Lady Une understood perfectly. The Gundam pilots had had very little exposure to the opposite sex and it was obvious they were not used to dealing with girls. Only Relena seemed to be a constant presence in their lives and only she was immune to Heero's abrupt behavior. Lady Une wasn't really worried. She knew perfectly well that in a few weeks she'd be trying to pry the boys off the girls; it was the nature of the world. But to make sure that Heero did not feel too uncomfortable she decided to change the subject.

"There are a lot of female volunteers after Princess Relena made that announcement she was joining The Peace Keepers," she said, testing the water. Relena would always be a pacifist and would never carry a weapon, but she had expressed an interest in security after the incident at The Sanc Castle. While it had been a good move on the part of the Princess to join them, even if it was in an administrative post, most of her ardent admirers had decided to join the task force following in her. While it boosted their ranks, Lady Une knew most of the girls were there with no idea as to what they were walking into. A failure of the A.C. would have a few in tears, while their mascara ran down their cheeks, making them look like zebras. Still, there were a few serious ones here and it was up to the old timers to sort them out. And Lady Une knew just the person to do it…

"Hn," Heero grunted. "When will we have our physical examination?" he asked abruptly.

Lady Une wondered just how nervous the boys were at the prospect of getting a physical. She had been asked the same question by both Maxwell and Chang. "We'll have to sort it out as soon as Noin returns from her mission," she replied. "Until then Sally is helping me with the administrative side of things." S_ince Relena was proving to be klutz at it_

"What mission?" Heero asked, latching onto the word immediately.

"It's a need to know thing," Lady Une said, smoothly. "But Noin will be back in a couple of days …" _hopefully with another person "_…and you can ask her yourself."

"Yes, but…"

"Do you think Mr. Barton is ready for field duty?" she asked, changing the subject, quickly.

"Yes."

"I have a mission in mind for him," she said thoughtfully. "I'll have to assign it to the two of you before I go to the World Security summit." _She had a few Ministers to sooth and some heads of securities to intimidate. _"It's an easy one, which will help him ease back to his feet…"

She was interrupted by Quatre who was standing, leaning against one of the store doors, acting, almost as if he was a lookout.

"Mr. Winner," she said, stopping. "You aren't raiding our store, are you?"

"Of course not." The blond smiled like and angel.

"Where's Mr. Maxwell?" she asked suspiciously. Those two were thick as thieves and if one was there, the other was soon to follow.

"He's inside," Quatre admitted, reluctantly then said hurriedly. "Wufei is with him."

"Oh, well," she said, letting out a breath. "Tell Mr. Chang I want to see him…I have special task for him."

"I will," Quatre nodded, and then signaled Heero to stay. Lady Une couldn't pry without looking like an over suspicious bitch, so she nodded to both of them and continued towards her office. She would deal with them later.

----!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!----

Heero watched Lady Une walk away in her female version of the Peace Keeper uniform, and when he had judged her to be out of hearing range, turned around and demanded.

"Are they having sex in there?"

"No!" Quatre blushed. "It's just…Wufei…um…why don't you go in and see for yourself."

Heero did not bother to speak as he barreled past Quatre into the store room and stopped at the sight of …

…Wufei and Duo engaged in a passionate kiss. If he had not been so hurt by the actions of the other two, he would have found the whole thing a turn on. Though Heero had grown a little, both Wufei and Duo had remained the same height; Duo probably due to childhood malnutrition, Wufei because of his Chinese[1 genes. Their hands were firmly around each other, Duo having pulled Wufei's hair clasp free. Wufei's hair fell down to his shoulders easily and Duo had a hand running through it. They were so close together that Heero could not have slipped a finger between them. He could see the way their facial muscles moved – there were tongues involved, he was sure – and the way their hips were grinding together was erotic.

But Heero wasn't sure as what to think.

They had come to an agreement that day in the hospital while waiting for Trowa to wake up that the three of them would try out a relationship. However, it seemed as if he was interfering in an already existing one. Duo and Wufei had been together before Heero had come along to break into their little partnership. It seemed as if he was always in the way.

Sex had not come up. First there had been the move, then hiding their Gundams, then enrolling at school…and joining The Peace Keepers. With so many things to do, their relationship had been put on hold. Indefinitely, it seemed sometimes. Heero had been the one to discourage sex when it became obvious they would be subjected to a physical examination. They did not want any outward signs of their relationship to give it away. They were coming to terms with it themselves. They did not need nosy adults trying to deal with it.

Then there had been the intimacy problems Duo had; Wufei was trying to come to terms with the whole concept of having two lovers yet…still…but…

Why come to a storage room to kiss when they had a house to themselves? Was it because they didn't want Heero to see them? Did they think Heero was an outside interference? Heero hadn't known about Wufei and Duo the first time he'd had sex with Wufei but now he did…maybe he should…

He was slowly backing towards the door when Duo looked up and their eyes met. For a moment Duo looked confused then he broke free of Wufei abruptly…

"Heero," he said, sounding slightly breathless. "You're here. Look, Wufei has this problem and…"

As far as he could see, the only problem Wufei seemed to have was fitting into his trousers, and Duo was sporting an impressive erection as well. He kept on backing towards the door, feeling like an intruder. Duo, the more observant of the two seemed to note Heero's movements and darted forward.

"Wait…uh…look…"

Stuttering was an indication the speaker did not know what to say or how to say it. It was sign of guilt or reluctance to say what they wanted to say. Either way, it was apparent to Heero that he was simply not needed.

Then at that moment Wufei turned around scowling, his eyes blazing, shouting. "Yuy, they've dressed me up as a woman!"

There was a pause as Heero took in the information; the round collared grey blouse Wufei wore, short sleeved with pink flowers embroidered on the edges to give a more feminine touch to the female member of Peace Keepers

He couldn't help it. Heero snickered.

"You think it's funny," Wufei fumed. "That woman …" referring to Sally with whom he was not in good terms at the moment "…had run out of uniforms for us. There just happened to be an abundance of these…" pulling at the blouse as if it would tear.

"You look nice in it," Heero observed. The blouse was loosely cut with enough room for someone with a more developed chest to wear comfortably. It hung loose on Wufei's slender frame, even with all the buttons in place, dipping forward to reveal his back tank top underneath.

"I don't…" Wufei exploded. "I look like some drag queen…"

"Yeah," Duo teased. "Pink is really your color…."

"Don't you start again," Wufei fumed. "If Sally hadn't brought that whore with her…"

"What exactly happened?" Heero asked as he stepped forward so Wufei, who had been about to run off, stopped. He caught a small movement from the side of his eye and looked around but it was Duo standing, looking innocent and unassuming – a sign that he had been up to something.

"Did you do something behind my back?" Heero inquired.

"Geeze," Duo huffed. "You got eyes on the back of your head now?" Heero noticed Duo hadn't denied the claim. Still, when he looked back Wufei was trying to tear the pink flowers out with a blunt fingernail, pouting in a way which said he was annoyed.

"You'll make a hole in it," Heero pointed out.

"Good," Wufei said with satisfaction. "Then I can go topless."

"At least she didn't give you a skirt," Duo offered.

"That's because all of the skirts available came up to my mid-thigh," Wufei shouted.

"You wanted to wear a skirt?" Heero asked.

"No!"

"They only ordered five Peace Keeper uniforms in our size," Duo said wearily. "Then Sally brought Shaun along with her and since Wufei was late coming here- and she had assumed he already had a uniform and gave it to Shaun instead."

"I tell you, she did it on purpose," Wufei said, his fists clenched.

Duo pulled out a box of pencils and started to nibble on one of them. It was obvious Sally and Wufei were at odds with each other since the meeting on the Peacemillion. Sally had not done anything wrong as far as the others were concerned. She had simply told Wufei that she had been part of the OZ troops that had destroyed his colony and there might be more survivors than he had originally thought.

"…_mean survivors?" Wufei shouted, his face red._

"_Your colony was counting on getting attacked," Sally said. "They knew they should move before it was destroyed. By the time the OZ troops arrived most of the children and civilians had been evacuated in escape shuttles…"_

"_You are lying," Wufei said, almost in tears. "I was there…"_

"_I don't think you were in any condition to keep watch over the entire colony," Sally said kindly. "I don't think they would have told you, no matter how important you were of the decision. After all, the most prominent families chose to stay behind and fight…"_

"_But I would have known," Wufei shouted. "They wouldn't have let my wife die if…"_

Needless to say they had returned earlier than expected with a preoccupied Wufei…

"Who is Shaun?" Heero asked. The name was familiar but he was not able to place it properly.

"Remember the time Wufei got a call from Sally saying she had some trouble with a couple of Mobile Suits?" Duo supplied. "And came back all bloody."

"Ah," Heero nodded, remembering. "Shaun was the spy inside their camp who was acting as a prostitute in town."

"He wasn't _acting_ as the town whore," Wufei ground out. "He _**was**_ the town whore."

"But he tried to blow up Sally," Heero said. "Why would she want him around?"

"According to her the best way to keep a terrorist in check is to enroll him or her as a PK Duo said, putting a hand into one of the storage boxes and pulling out a handful of foam padding used to keep the supplies in place during transportation. "Here," he said holding it out to Wufei. "Try stuffing this in your front so it'll look as if you have boobs."

"I'm going to kill you," Wufei scream, as he launched himself at Duo.

"That's Heero's line to Relena," Duo taunted jumping out of the way, knocking over a box of notepads in the process. "Cool it, man. No one will notice it if you don't make too much of a fuss about it."

"You mean no will notice I have streamers of pink flowers down my chest," Wufei said as he started to chase Duo who was running circles around Heero.

Heero put out a hand and caught Wufei around his waist and pulled him close. Duo skidded to a halt, flinging out his hands for balance and pushed over a box marked 'fragile, glass paper weights.' There was a sickening sound of glass breaking as the box fell and the three of them paused.

"You should put that in place," Heero said with a scowl to Duo and re-turned his attention to Wufei who was taking advantage of the distraction to worry the embroidery.

"Stop it," Heero said, reaching for the waistband to pull the shirt out. Perhaps if it wasn't tucked in, it wouldn't be too obvious.

"It makes me look gay," Wufei complained as Heero's palm brushed the skin near his hips. They both stiffened at the contact.

"But you _are_ gay." Heero observed, even as he leaned forward and captured those pouting lips in a kiss. Wufei's mouth tasted of sugar and tea – a sword calloused palm gripped Heero's hand in an iron grip, holding it in place while the other snaked around Heero's neck, looking for a steady grip…

"Are you three done throwing temper tantrums?" Quatre's voice sailed through the closed door. "I have to go now- Trowa is going to be here."

"Yes," said Heero, pulling free. He should not have gotten distracted by Wufei in a place where they could be so easily compromised. "We will be out immediately."

"I'm not going out in public dressed like this," Wufei protested.

"We're going," Heero said. "We have the introduction meetings today. We should not be late." He gripped Wufei firmly and dragged him towards the door, pausing to look over his shoulder at Duo who was struggling with the fallen box. He huffed in exasperation and walked towards Duo, lifted the box and kept it in place easily. Then he propelled Duo out with a firm hand on the shoulder, grabbed Wufei by the arm and tried not to mentally curse his lovers.

[1 No disrespect meant for the Chinese. Just that compared to Europeans, they are short.

1.2: The Attack of the Big Sister(s)

"You are the Winner, as in the owner of Winner Group," Catherine said, towering over Quatre in her high heeled boots.

Quatre gulped and nodded, feeling helpless, as Trowa looked over her shoulder. Trowa had shot up in height, making Quatre's two inches of growth seem insignificant, while Catherine seemed to have the same genes as her brother.

"We were never rich to start with, you know," she continued. "We are unassuming people who don't want to trouble anyone. So what exactly are your intentions towards my brother?"

Quatre wondered what her intentions towards him were. He had no intention of going close to Trowa if she was about. And anyway, he was keeping Trowa at a distance for now. After all that Trowa had put him through, he was not about to forget and forgive.

"You've caused a lot of grief for him," she said firmly.

"Cathy," Trowa said weakly.

"Um," said Quatre, wondering if he should point out the amount of angst Trowa had caused him.

"Well, you were moaning over him when you last came to see me, weren't you?" she said.

"I wasn't exactly moaning," Trowa protested.

"He was?" Quatre perked up at the idea.

"Well," said Catherine looking him over from top to bottom. "We'll have proper talk once I've settled in. These inter-planetary rides haven't improved in quality, at all."

"How was the trip?" Quatre said weakly, feeling like an idiot. He wanted Trowa and since Catherine was Trowa's sister, it was imperative she liked him. He just didn't know how to get into her good books.

"Long," Catherine said, shouldering her bag while Trowa attempted to take it from her with no avail. "I was told I could share Lady Une's quarters since someone called Noin is out of town."

"Yes," said Quatre, wondering about Noin's mysterious mission. "But you can come over and stay at …" He was going to say my place but it was hard to say that. Though his apartment was both expensive and exclusive, there wasn't much living space.

When he had first gone apartment hunting, he had realized that sharing a place with the threesome would not be a good idea. While Wufei, Duo and Heero would not have complained, their relationship was still too new for them to handle an outsider as well. On the top of it all, Quatre was aware that they had been living in each other's laps for a while and wanted to stretch his limbs. A little independence would do him some good.

So when he had come across an exclusive single person apartment in a secure neighborhood he had grabbed it. One of the reasons he had taken it had been that the agent who had sold it to him had told him that it was for one person exclusively. He wanted Trowa to get the message that he preferred to be alone. It had not stopped Trowa from renting a single room loft apartment in a building, just opposite Quatre's apartment. The blond hadn't asked for a reason and Trowa hadn't given one but it was obvious Trowa was there because of Quatre.

Still, there was Trowa's big sister who was scarier than a stampeding dinosaur who wanted the best for her newly found little brother. Quatre knew she didn't mean any harm – just her way of making up for the years apart. She took her role as big sister very seriously – even if it meant overriding Trowa at times.

"I'd like to talk to Lady Une anyway," Catherine said walking forward briskly. Performing in front of a group of people every day meant she did not lack in confidence. "I've heard so much about her during the war but now I get to meet her in person."

"I'll take the bag," Trowa offered.

"Forget it," Catherine said, with a huff. "I don't want you straining your chest."

"I'm fine," Trowa protested.

"Trowa tells me you have a meeting now," Catherine said as she turned to face Quatre, ignoring Trowa.

"Nothing big," Quatre said, weakly. "Lady Une wants us to get used to the procedures here so she's giving us a run down of the basics. She has a Summit meeting to attend to in two day's time so she'll be out of the office for a while. She just wants to assign us duties before she leaves so things will run smoothly during her absence."

"Still," Catherine said, thoughtfully. "What time will this end?"

"It'll be over in an hour or two," Trowa said.

"Good." Catherine brightened up. "That'll give me time to freshen up. Let's have dinner together…just the three of us." She looked Quatre directly in the eye and the blond noticed that her eyes were the same intense green as Trowa's. "It's time we got to know each other better."

---!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1---

"I don't have much time," Quatre told Iria over the com-link. "I have a dinner to get ready to."

His sister looked pleased at the prospect. "With a pretty girl – finally. I knew this was good for you."

"Eh," Quatre floundered. "It's nothing like that. It's just Trowa and his sister that I'm going…"

"Is she pretty?" Iria demanded.

"Who?"

"Trowa's sister?" his sister said with a wink. "Is she tall and slender like he is?"

"But you haven't even met him," Quatre protested.

"But I've seen enough holo-vids of him," Iria said, unperturbed. "So…what's she's like?"

"Scary," Quatre said grumpily.

"Oh, I forgot," Iria said with a knowing smile. "You haven't had much practice interacting with girls. Don't you worry…you'll get used to them."

'_What if I don't want to,' _Quatre thought. "I'm going to be late so…"

"Wait!" Iria said. "Jane[2 wants to talk to you."

"I was hoping to catch you before you went anywhere," Jane said with authority as he tired hard not to roll his eyes. Jane was not his eldest sister but she was the one nearly everyone in the family with the natural authority. She ruled the family with an iron fist – minus the padded glove.

"Jane," Quatre said, fighting the urge to say 'ma'am'.

"Have you looked at the proposal I sent you yesterday?" she demanded. "I want your opinion on it as soon as possible. And also the new plans for the old refinery equipment. What do you think of using the solar shields from the old Omega Two station and..." Even though Jane rules the family, Quatre was by birth the true male heir, which meant she had to defer to his wishes. Amazingly enough, she took it in stride as she did everything else.

"I'll have to look over everything on Saturday," Quatre said weakly. "I haven't had time with school and all…"

"Ah, yes," Jane nodded looking pleased. "I heard you've finally decided to continue your education. At a public institute no less- perhaps we could arrange for private tutors for you…"

"No!" Quatre said before his sister could get carried away with the plans. "I prefer it this way. Draws less attention."

"But you'll have to come back and manage the family business one of these days," Jane reminded him sternly.

"Not in a hurry," Quatre muttered under his breath, wishing his sisters would leave him alone so he could find his spare dress shirt and comb his hair.

"Fine," Jane decided. "Have the papers sent to me by Monday." Even in the advanced age there was something about dealing with paper. Most of Winner industries day to day businesses took shape on paper [3 which meant a lot of hands on contact with ---paper.

"Monday," said Quatre thinking it over. "I'll have it sent to you by courier…"

"No need," Jane said dismissively. "Rashid said he'd be visiting L4, so you can send it through him and …"

Quatre remembered the plan he'd hatched up to make a match between one of his sisters and Rashid, which had ended in a disaster. But still if Rashid was contacting Jane and telling her of his plans to visit L4 it would mean something had blossomed in the desert. He wondered if he should ask her about it.

"Uh," he said instead. "I'll see to it."

"And Camilla is going to make an Earth-side visit sometime soon," Jane said. "She went to school there you know. Has a couple of friends she's lost touch with and wants to bring her entire family for a visit."

Quatre could not remember whether Camilla had three or four kids but he nodded dutifully. "That's nice," he said.

"She'll introduce you to a couple of family friends," Jane continued. "Nice girls…well brought up…"

"Girls."

"Well, you are planning on getting married and settling down, aren't you?"

"Yes…but…"

"Dad met mom at your age…though they didn't get married for another three years. It's to give you time to know the girl…we aren't barbarians you know, we expect you to have someone you can live with," Jane said as if she was discussing the weather.

Quatre had an inkling as to how Wufei must have felt when his family had arranged his marriage. While it was not like he hadn't seen it coming, his sisters interference with his life was becoming a bit of a sore point. Thinking of Wufei reminded him of the pink flowered blouse he had worn for the meeting and had to stop himself from snickering. Wufei had looked so cute in it and Quatre had noticed that both Heero and Duo had found it fascinating.

"I'm not dad," he bit out heatedly. "You just leave me …"

"We can't do that," Jane said sharply. "All our lives and many more depend on Winner Industries and how you behave determines it as well. So you had better get your act together and…"

"I'm late," Quatre snapped, reaching forward and switching the com-link off, fuming. While he did not think his father spent all his days playing with test tubes (and the image was all wrong) he had a life of his own. He did not want to shoulder the responsibilities of an entire colony. While he was fighting the war and piloting Sandrock it had been easy. All he'd had to think of was staying alive and repairing his mecha. Now, there were so many things to worry about…

He sighed. Arriving late at a dinner was no way to impress anyone and he had to pick up some flowers, too. He hoped Catherine liked flowers.

[2 In the canon all 29 of Quatre's sisters are not named. So does naming one of them make it a new character? Stray suggested I refer to them by Borg names like: 5 of 29 and 7 of 29…

[3 Gundam wing universe is pretty backward, apart from a few large Mechas. Might as well be living in the 18th century.

1.3: Wufei and the Girl(s)

What Lady Une was thinking was beyond Wufei's comprehension. At least Trowa and Heero had been assigned for background checking of applicants and the other two were doing a perimeter security check. And he was stuck in a roomful of girls who'd never seen a uniform in their entire life. There were exactly twenty three girls in the room and in Wufei's eyes they seemed to have tripled in number. There were tall girls, short girls, girls with short hair, long hair…no hair…ok wearing some sort of skin colored hat and …there was even one Chinese looking girl.

She didn't look anything like Merian - apart from the fact her eyes slanted, her hair was straight black and she had the same skin tone as his wife had. Just that there were so few pure bred Chinese around nowadays, Wufei recognized her origins without any difficulty. There were very few people who could boast of being pure. Heero, the blue-eyed Japanese sometimes looked about as Japanese as Treize did and Quatre definitely had a European bloodline mixed with his Arabic one.

Wufei pointedly ignored the girl and looked over the 'lot' in general. They were all around his age, dressed in what they considered to be work out clothes…which varied from skin tight jeans in which they'd never lift a leg in (like that brunette with a braid surprisingly similar to Duo's) to comfortable workout clothes like what he was wearing (like the Chinese girl.) Wufei had changed into his usual white trousers and black tank top as soon as possible – he was not wearing his blouse ever again. It had been bad enough that everyone at the meeting had been trying hard to bite back their laughter – Sally's little pet monkey had laughed out loud. On the top of it, the next morning he had found a matching skirt on his sleeping bag when he'd returned from his shower. He was going to get back at Duo for that, even if it was the last thing he did.

"We'll start with the basics," Wufei said as he stepped into the mat. "This is your first self defense class and if you can't…" he stopped as a leggy red head put up a hand.

"Yes," he bit out. He was not a teacher. He should be doing something more productive than dealing with females who were munching bubble gum like cows chewing cud.

"What's your name?" the red-head asked between rotating her jaws to get the maximum out of her bubblegum.

"He's Chang Wufei," another girl answered. "He was at Princess Relena's ball and he's a prince."

"I saw it on World Media- there was that attack and…"

"And there was a fire…"

"People were running out…some even lost their clothes…" Wufei wondered where that had come from.

"He's from L5…the colony that blew up…it was so old and…"

"They say he's the only survivor…"

"It can't be…isn't Jasmine from there too…"

"ENOUGH!" Wufei bellowed, feeling control slip from his fingers. Women were only good for talking. He had no idea what they were doing here in the first place. If they had any common sense at all they'd have left long time ago.

"I have a list of names here…so this is what I will do. I need to know your level of competency at defending yourself…. I'll start with you one by one and when I call your name you get on the mat and…uh…attack me." He looked around. "Yes," he said to the red-head who was holding up her hand.

"Can we use weapons?" she asked.

Wufei looked around the training room, a bare, padded walled enclosure with a rubbed floor. "What are you going to use?" he asked. "Bubblegum."

A few girls tittered.

The red-head pulled out a flick blade and showed it to him. "Where I come from we use these."

"Where I come from, you don't carry a blade unless you know how to use it," Wufei replied evenly. Inside he was thinking of hundred and one ways of throwing the girl out. What was he doing here!! "You wait your turn like everyone else and fight like everyone else." A knife might give other girls a few ideas he wanted to discourage. Like that carrying weapons might make them invulnerable. "We'll start with A. Abraham, Hannah."

Wufei spent exactly three seconds with Hannah before he kicked her out of the training area. He was impatient and needed to get home early. There was a stack of books he needed to read for the assignment due next week. There was also a huge pile of laundry collecting in a back room…

He literally pushed the next girl to the floor, ignored the sickening crack that followed. If she didn't know what she was getting into, then she should have stayed at home and taken up cross stitching.

He waded through the next collection of girls with barely controlled fury, knowing they should have been better off at homes. Didn't they know they would get hurt in the end – maybe even killed? They were weak creatures and most annoyingly, pack creatures. He had noticed it before but now, it became even more obvious. They cheered when a girl managed to stay on the mat longer than five seconds with him. They would shout encouragement at her and cheered her on. In addition, there was all the high pitched screeching and even more annoying sobbing as they were helped off the floor.

He was thankfully reaching the end of the list when he reached the name he had been dreading. Yao Jasmine!

He let her make the first move, knowing that she knew a little about fighting from the way she moved. She stepped back and came at him with the exact same move Meiran had used on him all those years back and he froze. Her kick caught him square in the middle and he went with the flow, flipping over and bouncing back, backhanding her as he found his feet. She fell over hard, missing the mat and cracking her head against the floor. The look of disbelief in her eyes, coupled with something close to amusement reminded him – again of his long dead wife.

"You women are all useless," Wufei ground out speaking to the class but maintaining eye contact with her. "You should stay home and get married and have kids. That should be enough for you."

----!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111----

At the end of the training session, the girls limped, crawled and literally ran out the room leaving Wufei alone. Well, not _all_ alone…

"I've heard of you," Jasmine said, approaching him.

"You're from L5." It was a statement. Wufei would have known her for the fighting style if nothing else.

"Yes." She bowed low. It was not an act of submissiveness, it was simply good manners. "My family was one of the last to leave the colony."

Wufei did not answer, simply turning his back to her to show that the conversation was over.

"How did you beat me?" she blurted out all of a sudden. "I…I've been studying the fighting techniques all my life. And…my grandmother remembers you as a child and she says you were a scholar not a…"

"…fighter," Wufei concluded turning around to face her. "I have no idea who you think me to be, but I am not him. War changes people." He shut up abruptly before he could reveal more - it was so much like talking to Meiran, he was starting to get carried away. He was about to head for the showers when he was stopped by a faint touch on his upper arm.

"That was rude of me," Jasmine apologized but her voice said otherwise. "I'm sorry." Wufei remained motionless, mentally willing her to let go of his arm. He wanted to pull away but it was almost as if she was piece of home he had not seen in a long time. For the first few years of his life he had been surrounded by people like her - who looked like her – and him. He was suddenly flooded with a rush of homesickness he had not felt in years.

"You didn't say anything new to me," Wufei replied as he shook off the arm and walked away. He went towards the showers with the intent of washing the disastrous day off and heading back home. However, as he reached the entrance of locker room, he realized that most of the girls had decided to use it. Gritting his teeth, he decided to take a shower back at home. Even though he wore a blouse now and then, it did not mean he was going to start exchanging hair-care tips with them while scrubbing his armpits – after all, he could do the same at home with Duo.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

2.1: Sally's pet monkey. 

Trowa was pissed off by the quality of coffee served in the office, the amount of application forms waiting to be processed piled on his table (slightly more than Heero's since Heero was working through his pile mechanically), at having to do paperwork when he should be out in the field, and the unfairness of life in general. The chipped glass paper weights that were assigned to their room were starting to become an eyesore. Trowa wondered why all the paperweights were damage- some sort of transport accident.

He got up, irritably pushing back his fringe, walked to the window and looked down at the streets below. The only impressive thing about having an office on the 26th floor was the view it offered. It barely made up for being cramped in a four- by- four room with three file cabinets, two old-fashioned computer tables and one Heero Yuy. Trowa contemplated opening the window and jumping, just so he could forget Quatre and the infamous dinner. Life just didn't seem to be fair. As if to mock his predicament, the room door opened (inwards) with a grating sound which made him grit his teeth, and Shaun walked in as if he owned the place.

What Shaun originally looked like was something Trowa might never know but to him Shaun looked like a walking Christmas tree. He had green spiked hair; more piercings than a bullet-riddled mobile suit and an attitude which made you want to strangle him on the spot. As far as Sally was concerned Shaun was too young and too unstable for any field or office work. As far as Trowa was concerned Sally was far too lenient with the annoying punk. He sauntered into the room as though or was doing them a great favor and brought with him disposable, bio degradable, environmentally friendly cups of coffee. The only thing which was a biohazard as far as Towa was concerned was the coffee itself. If he didn't know better he'd say that Sally had a job designing coffee machines – or making coffee at the HQ canteen.

"So," said Shaun as he slammed Heero's cup down, hissing as his hand got splashed with hot coffee in the process. He shook his hand and blew on it - but only until he noticed the other two following his every move with a critical eye. Then he wiped it off on his uniform and adopted an expression which said it didn't hurt anymore. "Sure you two aren't twins - with those matching expressions?" It seemed to be his way of getting over the fact he was nothing but a glorified coffee boy at the office. He also ran messages, helped with the printing and handed out office stationary - all of which did nothing to dampen his resentment at the others who seemed to have better jobs than he did. Most of Shaun's anger was directed at the five Gundam pilots who were close to his age but got more respect and seemingly, the better jobs around the office.

Sally had seen to it that, should Shaun ever step out of line, he would be deported to L2's Juvenile Detention Facility until he was of age but she had also warned everyone in general that he was not to be bullied. Shaun seemed to have taken it into his head that as long as he did not physically harm anyone he was allowed to do anything he wanted.

And most of the time he was correct.

Verbal barbs never affected either Trowa or Heero …well not usually. But after having had a disastrous dinner the pervious night, the last thing Trowa wanted was to be shut in an office with a teenager with an attitude problem.

Heero sent down his coffee in one gulp, making both Trowa and Shaun wince in sympathy. Heero did not even blink. "That stuff's going to kill you," Shaun offered.

"Everything eventually does," Heero said without missing beat as he bent over his pile of papers again. Shaun walked over and picked up one of the volunteer forms and turned it over.

"Why did you reject this?" he asked as he looked at the attached photo. Trowa thought that it might be another misguided girl out to save the world from the evils of fellow humans.

Heero did not even bother looking up. "It specifically says to fill in the information in block letters."

"But it's just the first name," Shaun protested, sounding pleased that he'd found something to needle Heero about. "How about you…"

"It is obvious that if this person cannot read simple instructions. He would never be able to …"

"As if you filled any application forms to join here," Shaun said tauntingly.

"Neither did you," Heero snapped back, slightly annoyed by the looks of it. Trowa looked up from his place by the windowsill and realised that maybe Heero wasn't exactly having a great love life either. After all, this was the guy who was with both Wufei and Duo… he was just glad it wasn't him.

"I don't think you people knew how to fill in forms," Shaun smirked at them. "After all, the Gundam pilots here seem to breeze in and out as if you own the place. It's not like you know how to read and write."

Both of them remained silent as Shaun looked at them, willing them to react.

"You are the person who refused to go to school," Trowa pointed out as he reached for his coffee despite his dislike for the drink. If he spilled some, maybe it would burn a hole right down to the ground floor. "If you are done serving coffee and trying to rile us, can you just get out?"

"Touchy," Shaun said with a touch of defiance. "Does this have anything to do with a dinner you had with that girl who visited you and the other blond guy?" It was amazing how much of everyday happenings Shaun was privy to. He seemed to know everything about everybody and even if his information was incomplete there was always some truth in it.

"The girl happens to be my sister," Trowa spat out. "Now…out."

"Repeat after me," Shaun said slowly as if talking to an idiot. "Thank you for the coffee, Shaun. You may leave now."

"Unless you have a valid reason to stay, get out," Heero said dismissively.

"I have plenty of things to say," Shaun said resting a hip on Heero's table, looking slightly pleased with himself. "If you ladies like to listen to gossip…"

Trowa was grateful Wufei was not there. Calling him a lady in his present state of mind would have resulted in Shaun being thrown out the window, Sally's protection or not.

"Say what you want to say," Heero said neutrally and Trowa gave him points for blank expressions.

"Oh," Shaun shrugged casually, tossed his head back and smirked. "You would like to know, wouldn't you?"

"Get on with it." Trowa stepped away from the window and walked towards Shaun, using his superior height to intimidate.

"Forget it," Shaun hissed. "I spent most of my morning looking up the nostrils of Miss. Superior Queen of the World. Yours' isn't all that different." Relena was going through a growing spurt which was going to make her taller than Trowa, should it continue.

"What's Relena done this time," Heero demanded making Trowa wince. Trust Shaun to have discovered a weak spot in the Perfect Soldier's armor. But then again, Relena's infamous escapades seemed to have made life interesting if nothing else. Taking advantage of her generous nature, people had taken to sending her requests for financial aid, claiming that they needed money for everything from broken fingernails to holes in the heart. When Lady Une had come across a hastily written letter asking for money for some poor man's wife in-between the application forms she had confronted Relena with it.

When Relena finally admitted that she had been using PK funding to 'help the helpless', Lady Une had suggested that she at least investigate some of the claims before she filled their bank accounts. The crowning event had been when Relena had approached Heero with a request that he investigate one Mr. Freelove to see if he had an uncontrollable bladder condition which called for extensive surgery.

"Well, she seems to have you in mind," Shaun said with a smile. "It's Heero that she speaks of all the time. Anyway, she and her friend seem to have you and that blond in their sights."

"Quatre," Trowa frowned. It was a known fact that Dorothy had a certain fondness for the blond Gundam pilot but whether it was serious or not was not clear. With her sarcastic comments and her devil may care attitude, Dorothy breezed in and out of the HQ as if she owned the place. It did not help that Dorothy had refused to join the PKers. She had professed a need for independence which meant she was free to waltz in and out whenever she needed to visit her friend but did not have to bend to any of the rules.

"Whatever," Shaun shrugged to show that he did not care what Quatre was called. "It was pretty obvious that things are going to heat up when Miss. Catalonia's love life perks up…especially since Miss. Noin is going to be returning soon with her price catch."

"What exactly is Noin's mission?" Heero asked looking slightly more interested by the new information.

"You'd love to know, wouldn't you?" Shaun taunted. "But it's on a strictly need to know basis."

"What I don't get is how you'd know about something like that when it's supposed to be top secret," Trowa spoke aloud.

"The same way I know what goes on in this office," Shun said with a wicked smile.

"He has access to Lady Une's office," Heero informed Trowa. "He serves her coffee and tides her table."

'_And goes through her personal correspondence,' _Trowa realized_. 'And since Sally keeps him close by, he probably knows about what goes on in her office, as well.' _

"Anyway, you want to know what I know," Shaun offered. "As to what this secret mission in the Alps is."

Heero shrugged.

"I only give out information in exchange of a price," Shaun said, tipping his head back and half inclining on the table. Heero looked annoyed as a pile of papers shifted sideways and then tipped off the table completely.

"What price?" Trowa asked with a frown. "Money?"

"How would I explain away the extra earnings to Sally?" he said derisively. "And from what I hear, your financial position isn't anything to boast about."

"Then…"

"It's been a while since I've had any entertainment and I hear you Gundam pilots are to die for. At least from Princess Relena… I want to know what makes you so special…"

"You want what?" Trowa asked slightly confused.

"Heero," Shaun managed a mock falsetto closely resembling Relena's. "Kiss me."

"I think not," Heero said looking slightly stunned.

"So the rumour that's going around seems to be true: you _are_ with someone," Shaun pressed. "I heard it from that Winner guy you were involved with someone other than Relena."

'_So that's what he was after_,' Trowa guessed. '_Information_'. Heero wasn't as subtle at manipulating people as Shaun was. Trowa also noted that Shaun knew exactly who Quatre was but acted ignorant since it suited him better.

"Quatre told you?" Trowa gasped.

"I overheard a discreet conversation," Shaun winked. "What about some of that infor and I'll tell you about Noin's expedition is about. It's called exchange."

"I think we'll find out about it eventually," Trowa snapped. "Unless you have something to say…"

"I'm going, I'm going," Shaun said slipping off the table. "But let me drop you something interesting for free. From what I hear, while the two of you are stuck in this room, your Chinese friend is hitting it off with the girls. The morning news says that he beat up half the girls but remained behind to chat up one female by the name of Jasmine."

"Wufei," both Trowa and Heero managed to sound skeptical. The thought of him with some woman was unthinkable.

"Laugh if you must," Shaun said as he opened the door. "But you should know…her last name is Yao and I think they share a common interest. She's from L5 as well."

----!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!---

They remained silent as the sound of high heeled steps announced the presence of more approaching intruders. Trowa gave the window a discreet glance, seriously contemplating jumping off, when the door to their room opened and two blonde girls walked in.

"Heero," Relena said pushing open the door. "There you are…"

"You said Quatre would be here when you dragged me along," Dorothy scowled as she walked in. "Hello Trowa." She added as an afterthought, which was a lot more than Relena had done.

"We are here to pick up your sister," Relena said smiling at Heero.

"I don't have a sister," Heero said, sounding stupid. Trowa had to bite back a smile. Only Heero could get away with sounding dense.

"She means Trowa's," Dorothy said in exasperation. "As soon as she tears her eyes off Heero and manages to explain why she thinks Trowa's sister might be in his office instead of the room assigned to her with Sally, we will leave."

"It's not that," Relena said blushing scarlet. "I just wanted to…"

"Get your morning fill of Heero," Dorothy supplied helpfully. "When you're done, we should go. Where's Quatre by the way?"

Trowa considered lying. "He's out shopping with Duo," he said. "His sister… one of his sisters is supposed to be coming for a visit this week so he thought he might buy her kids some toys or something."

"Well then," Dorothy said looking around. "Let's go before he falls for some pretty sales slut or something. Don't mind if I drag Relena away Heero."

The two boys stood, feeling stunned, as the girls walked away, leaving them blessedly alone.

"Duo is supposed to be in school," Heero said looking at Trowa. School was the closest word to describe institution they all attended. It was a special learning center designed to adopt a number of war displaced young people who were of various ages and in various stages of education.

"The only reason Duo even attends that place is because both you and Wufei attend it," Trowa pointed out. "Since both of you are free today in the morning, I guess he felt like taking a day off."

Heero frowned, clearly not liking the idea, but did not speak about it.

"What happened last night?" Heero asked abruptly just as Trowa was about to sit down at his table.

"Is that a trick question?" Trowa asked feeling defeated.

"Duo says I should interact more," Heero said, trying to word his sentences clearly. "You are…we used to…you and I…"

"We used to fuck," Trowa helped.

"We used to help each other out," Heero said firmly. "I think…you are a …friend."

"How are things between you and the other two?" Trowa asked instead. He wanted to see how Heero would like having his personal life questioned.

"I think Duo wants Wufei," Heero said bluntly. "And I'm just a third wheel. I sometimes think they wait until I'm gone so they can be together."

Trowa paused. He had not seen that coming. And he had underestimated Heero's ability to speak about his personal problems.

"You are overreacting," he said. "They are probably just …"

"They don't want me," Heero said bluntly. "Now, what's wrong between you and Quatre?"

"I don't know." Given that level of honesty, there was no way Trowa could avoid speaking about his problems to his former lover. "I thought we were working out the problems and then last night…"

"What happened last night?" Heero asked, which was very unlike Heero but Trowa thought he was simply trying to help.

"Well," Trowa paused. "Catherine said she'd like to have dinner with both me and Quatre to get to know him better and…"

2.2: Disastrous Dinner 

Quatre had shown up at Sally's apartment slightly late, with a dozen roses, which Cathy had assumed was for Trowa. Trowa had never gotten flowers in his life and did not think Quatre was in the habit of buying him any. But he calmly took the offered roses and stuck them in a teapot belonging to Sally.

The ride to the restaurant had been quiet but relaxed. The car Quatre drove was compact but powerful and extremely comfortable. Quatre was unusually silent but Trowa assumed it was due to nervousness. Cathy had made all the small talk from the back seat, questioning them about the sights (which they knew nothing about) and asked intelligent questions about their work. Trowa knew he should have told Cathy something about Quatre and him not being together but he had never quite worked up his courage to do that. Whenever Catherine has vid-called him, he had given her the indication that things were going fine between them and while he hadn't specifically told her that he was in a relationship with Quatre, he had not said otherwise either. While Cathy had not been _that_ encouraging about him being close to the Winner heir at the beginning, she seemed to have warmed up to it after a while. If anything, she seemed to be too encouraging, as if making up for her earlier reluctance.

The food had been good (Trowa had no idea what half the dishes were called) and probably very expensive, but Quatre had paid for it without blinking. They had all been served the house red, which was a rare treat since Trowa could hardly remember the time he'd tried anything alcoholic. He wasn't sure if it was possible to get drunk on wine but he had been in a relaxed state between drunk and not-drunk by the time they were ready to leave.

On the drive back, they had not tried to be polite as to who was going to sit in the front seat. Trowa had gotten in and leaned back against the comfortable seat, his eyes half closed as the car sped off. On the way he'd casually let his hand brush against the knee of the driver and apart from a slight stiffening, Quatre had not protested. Emboldened by the move Trowa had kept a hand on Quatre upper thigh and the rest of the drive had been spent in silence.

Trowa knew Cathy could see that his hand was somewhere close to Quatre's crotch.

He wondered if Quatre knew that Cathy knew where Trowa's hand had wander off to.

He was strangely floating…a feeling he knew meant he was somewhat tipsy but hadn't crossed the threshold of being pissed out of his mind yet. They had dropped off Cathy first and he had walked her to the door. As he'd leaned forward to kiss her cheek (something he'd never done before) Cathy had reached to steady him.

"Oh, my," she said looking slightly surprised. "Just as well Quatre is driving you home I suppose. Otherwise I'd worry that you'd fallen in to a gutter somewhere."

"I'm not drunk," he'd protested, laughed and practically skipped back into the car.

In the car he'd leaned back into the seat and closed his eyes for a moment feeling slightly dizzy. When he'd opened them again, the car had come to a halt outside his apartment.

"Come on up," he'd invited Quatre. "I've got a box of …biscuits." He had a few condoms - he wasn't sure of the edible stuff but he was not drunk enough to mention that.

"Just as well," Quatre had said getting out and locking the door. "I need to talk to you."

They had both walked up seven flights of stairs to Trowa's sorry little room, which could barely fit in a bed, let alone a table, and had there been an attached bathroom, he could have washed while sitting on the bed. At that moment though, the bed had looked so damn inviting and the prospect of having someone to roll about in it…

Quatre had slapped him hard.

Trowa had looked up, stunned, the haze in his mind clearing.

"What!" he'd mouthed stupidly.

"What's the big idea, telling Catherine that we were together? She was two steps from planning our wedding…"

"Quatre…"

"Don't," Quatre had snapped. "What's with you? We aren't together and you know that. And acting as if we were shagging…"

"Come here." Trowa had reached forward and pulled Quatre to him. Quatre's body had been warm and firm against his, smaller but not weaker. He'd tasted of spice, wine and mint – a heady combination. Trowa had let his hands roam over the smaller boy's body, feeling the way he'd shuddered when he'd slipped hand through the waistband of his trousers.

Encouraged, Trowa had scooped up Quatre and dropped him onto bed, feeling the way his body had responded. There had been a moan as Quatre had reached for him and then they'd been groping each other and then…

Trowa had been on the floor with an angry looking Quatre looking down at him.

"I don't know who you think I am but I'm not someone you can tumble into bed with," Quatre had practically given out sparks.

"You like me and I like you," Trowa had reasoned. "It's not like…"

"I'm not some quick shag," Quatre had shouted. "I'm not Heero. You can't just walk up to me and say 'let's fuck'."

"You want flowers," Trowa had guessed.

"No you moron," Quatre had shouted. Really shouted. "I want a something that's not a one night stand. You don't say what you feel for me. You don't say what you want me to do. All you want to do is…" hand gesturing towards his semi-erection. "…this. Well, I want more. You can't say I'm too weak for you on one day then change you mind and pounce on me the next."

"Quatre…"

"Don't you get it?" there had been frustration in the voice. "I'm angry at you for choosing to screw Heero when I was there. You knew I liked you but you thought I was not suitable for you. Now that Heero's moved on…you want to crawl into my pants."

"You know it's not like that…"

"Maybe." The blond had slumped in bed. "But Trowa…you can't just…Maybe it's me. I know I shouldn't expect more from anyone…after all I'm a Gundam pilot and so are you but I would appreciate a little consideration…"

"I don't know what you want," Trowa had said in frustration. "If you want me to say I'm sorry I fucked Heero…well I'm sorry. I am. It was like scratching an itch…nothing serious. And he wasn't even the first guy I've…"

"Exactly," Quatre had pounced. "How do I know…"

"It's not like you don't want me."

"That's it…this is not working. Maybe we need to see other people instead of each other."

"I don't know what you want me to say," Trowa had pleaded.

"I don't know either," Quatre had said, sounding sad. "Good night Trowa. I'll see you at work tomorrow."

Then he'd walked out leaving a completely sobbed Trowa behind. He had been so sober there had not even been a hint of a hangover in the morning.

1----!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11---

While Trowa had recited the previous night's happenings, Heero had stayed silent, listening intently, then he looked up confused.

"I don't get it," he said. "What did you do wrong?"

A/N- short chapter ppl. Sorry about it but the next one will make up for it. Sat next to a cute guy on the bus today. He spent the entire ride worrying a tooth using both his hands. Who said romance is dead.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N –flashback scenes are going to be in italic.

Chapter 3

3.1: Why threesomes are awkward or just don't work. 

"That's not so bad," Duo scoffed. "So Tro got carried away and tried to pin you to a bed. You should have been there the time the three of us tried something…um… new."

"Easy for you to say," said Quatre grumpily. "You don't have to face Heero's or Wufei's sister afterwards. I have to be nice to Cathy and smile at her and I don't even have the heart to tell her that Trowa and I aren't together."

"As if I have it easy," Duo tossed back. "Heero goes into his silent mode and shuts us out and Wufei starts ranting which is equally bad. I swear that Heero has no idea what personal possessions mean."

"Care to explain that?" Quatre said picking up a small pink elephant that could shake its head from side to side. Duo rolled his eyes at it. And he had thought shopping for toys for Quatre's sister's kids was going to be fun.

"Like …um…remember our Gundams?" Duo persisted. "When Lady Une suggested we blow them up, the only two people who shrugged were Heero and Trowa. I think in Trowa's case, he was thinking of going to the circus and Heavyarms isn't something you can pack in a bag. In Heero's case, I think it's 'cause he doesn't really care."

"You remember he stole parts from yours to fix his up…," Quatre tried.

"But it was so he could complete his _mission_," Duo stressed. "He doesn't feel anything about his Gundam. He doesn't even believe in owning anything. Look, the guy owns two sets of clothes and a sleeping bag."

"So? You take him out on a shopping spree," Quatre said putting down the elephant and picking up a robot resembling a mobile suit. The moment he picked it up, it made a loud rattling sound and lit up like a nuclear explosion. Both the boys jumped startled before Duo grabbed it forcefully and slammed it onto the holder.

"No, I don't think your sister will thank us if we get her kids something like that," he said tossing his braid back.

"But…" Quatre looked thoughtfully at it then shrugged. "I always wanted one of those when I was a kid."

"Well," Duo pointed out. "You were the rich one. I was the one stuck with leftovers from other kids who donated their old, old toys to poor orphans."

"I'm the one with a pacifist father, remember," Quatre grimaced. "Still…" his eyes darted around and settled on a small wind up Gundam, which looked nothing like any of theirs'.

"Yeah, but…" Duo paused as two girls in short skirts walked by.

There was a stunned silence followed by a snicker from Quatre. "For a moment there I thought you were checking them out or something."

"I was," Duo protested.

"You were checking out their _hair_," Quatre pointed out. "That's not the same thing."

"Um, hair accessories for your sister's kids," Duo said hopefully.

"No, I want something especial," Quatre said with a scowl. "I don't know what to buy. Maybe I should have asked someone else."

"You know, it's not like any of us had ordinary childhoods," Duo pointed out. "I mean, Heero…back on topic now…doesn't care about owning anything. All he cares is that he has enough to get through the day."

"I take it Wufei wouldn't know either," Quatre said knowingly. "He doesn't look the type to have had toys as a kid. Maybe a collection of ancient swords…

"At least that guy is hoarding books as if it's going out of style," Duo grumbled. "But he sleeps in a sleeping bag since anything more would mean he's thinking more of his bodily comfort than…what?" Duo stopped mid-rant to see Quatre looking slightly uncomfortable.

"Just that…I guess it's none of my business," Quatre mumbled looking away and picking up a stuffed frog, which started wriggling realistically when pinched in the middle.

"Ask already," Duo said, plucking the frog out of Quatre's grasp and putting it down. "It's not like you're a total stranger or something."

"It's just," Quatre said with a slight blush. "I thought the three of you would share a bed or something, not camp out in three different rooms."

"We value our privacy," Duo said automatically then stopped. He looked down at his feet and sighed. "Didn't I tell you things aren't working out too great between us either? I mean, Wufei is so shy if I try to hold hands with him in public he panics. If I hold hands with Heero he either thinks it's some secret signal or that I can't walk on my own. On the top of that, there's my… problem." Duo looked embarrassed as he brought up the topic of his former rape but continued. "I don't want to start something. It feels bad that I can't …can't contribute to the relationship from both ends…you know…sexually." Both of them blushed.

"But didn't you try…." Quatre started when they were interrupted by a pretty sales girl who had been watching them struggle from sometime.

"Can I help you gentlemen?" she asked as she smoothed down her pleated skirt. It was absurdly short and Duo was sure that a lot of male customers had her either bending down to pick up things or reaching up for things on the top shelf.

"Yes," said Quatre looking slight embarrassed. "I'm trying to pick something for my nieces …uh…something new…"

"How old are they, sir?" the girl asked professionally and Duo gave her points for sounding serious in such a stupid attire.

"Five and six," Quatre replied promptly. Duo knew his friend had to look up the company database to find that out. He didn't even know the names of the girls. The salesgirl looked pleased that someone actually knew the correct ages and nodded.

"Might I suggest dolls," the girl said pointing to a different section of the store which was exclusively for dolls. "All girls like them. The latest craze are the Princess Relena dolls and our shop has one of the largest collections available from the Barbie version of Princess Relena to…"

"Uh," said Duo doubtfully. He had enough problems with the teenage Queen of the World at office – he didn't want to be bombarded by miniature replicas of her every time he went shopping.

"Don't worry, sir," The girl said misinterpreting Duo's hesitation. "A lot of boys have been looking it over as well. It would be quite natural for you to check it out."

Duo opened his mouth to tell the girl just exactly what he thought of anyone starting a new doll line with Princess Relena when Quatre, probably guessing his intentions, grabbed his arm and pulled him deeper into the rows and rows of Relenas on display.

"Oh, my," Quatre breathed as they walked past a life-sized doll with two young boys crouched in front of it, trying to look up its skirt. "This is rather overwhelming isn't it?"

Duo looked around with something close to horror as rows and rows of Relena look-alike Barbies in all sizes and color filled his sight. There was Relena in a swimsuit, Relena in a riding costume, dark skinned Relena (the Ethnic Relena Collection)… "I think I just had an overload in my system," he said slowly as if afraid to speak too fast.

"This is scary," Quatre whispered to him. "Is…is this the sex toy department?"

"I didn't think you knew of such things," Duo said in a normal voice. He looked around hurriedly then knelt to check under the pink tu tu of Relena the Ballet Dancer. "Nope…silk panties and sort of a faint line…but nothing definite between her legs."

"Duo!" Quatre hissed, pulling at Duo's braid. "Stand up before someone sees you…"

"And mistakes me for a straight guy," Duo said with a grimace. He straightened using Relena the Aerobic Trainer's arm to help him up then dropped it with a startled cry.

"What!" Quatre asked alarmed.

"Nah," Duo said shaking his head, taking the arm of the doll and examining it closely. "Take a look will you…here…feel it."

"Amazing," said Quatre running a hand up the dolls' arm. "They are using synthetic skin and there must be some sort of power supply to maintain this at body temperature." He put a hand around the waist of the doll which was closest to him and tired to lift it. "Well…lighter than normal so must be hollow inside."

"Let go," Duo grumbled. "There is something slightly disturbing about the sight of you with your arms around Relena wearing a maid outfit."

"Yeah," Quatre said, leaning more towards the doll, grinning. "Maybe I'm straight."

"Maybe I ought to tell Trowa that," Duo threatened, smiling to show he was also joking.

"If you do I'm going to buy Heero a life size Relena doll in a bunny suit," Quatre threatened.

"With my luck, Heero might take it off and try to put it on Wufei," Duo said, his smile dampening a bit.

"Eh?" Quatre said, looking perplexed.

"Heero…" Duo said looking down. "He's so obsessed with Wufei, sometimes I feel like I'm only a spectator to their relationship."

"Duo…" Quatre let go of the doll to walk towards his friend and put a hand around the skinny shoulders. "What brought that on?"

"Didn't I tell you it didn't go too well the last time we tried to well…you know…" Duo said blushing slightly.[1

"Is this where you get into graphic details about how you three tried to have sex?" Quatre asked, looking half-amused.

"You'd like to know, wouldn't you?" said Duo picking up a palm sized Relena with blond hair down to her ankles and gave it a twirl.

"Does this have something to do wit Heero promising to help you with your problem?" Quatre asked.

"Yeah, he's ok at it…I think. It's not like he's a therapist or anything, and with Heero it's not exactly 'lets talk and discuss this' sort of issue," Duo nodded, remembering the rather humiliating occurrence.

"What exactly did happen?" Quatre asked, picking up a new doll and accidentally knocking another down in the process. The one fallen on the ground started to scream in a high pitched voice, "Attack…help my people….we are under attack."

Duo picked it up and put it back in its place, noting that the description said that the doll was capable of reproducing all of Relena's speeches. He failed to see how it screaming that it she was under attack was part of any speech. It was fascinating how they've managed to reproduce the same annoying tone though…

"Duo!!!'

"Oh, all right," he said, slapping the next doll, which titled awkwardly. "It was just after we'd come back to Earth after meeting Sally on the Peacemillion. Remember, she had told Wufei about the colony and I guess he was feeling a little down and Heero's cure for everything seems to be sex."

"…_.should help," Heero said as they sat on the ratty sofa._

_Wufei, who had been propping his chin on his palm, supported by his knee, looked up at Heero, then resumed staring out the window at the overgrown garden._

"_Well," said Duo, looking at their depressed lover who was seated between them and then nodded. "What do you have in mind?"_

"_We could work on your problem." The calm, collected way Heero spoke about it -- as if it was a hydraulic line that had come loose in his Gundam -- would have bothered Duo, had he not been used to it by then. _

"_You think it's a good idea?" Duo asked hedging nervously towards Wufei, who absentmindedly put a hand around him. Duo relaxed against the Chinese youth. Duo wondered if Heero had noted that Wufei had been surprisingly quiet since they'd started kissing him._

_Duo knew Wufei's weak point was just that – kiss him and he practically melted – even in mid-rant. In Heero case, it was the back of his neck – rub his there and he would lean back against the hand like a cat getting its chin scratched. Duo wondered if he had any weaknesses other than his fear of anal sex brought on by a childhood rape, and whether the other two were aware of it._

_In reply, Heero leaned forward and Duo tensed, afraid that the next act was going to be Heero tearing his clothes off and turning him over. He leaned against Wufei, who straightened from his depression slump to hold Duo still. Thinking back, Duo was sure his lovers might have discussed this event beforehand, since Wufei did not act unduly startled. In fact, it was as if he had been expecting it._

_Whatever horrible things Duo was imagining were going to manifest, did not. Heero kissed him. Though Heero's kissing style was different from Wufei's it was equally devastating. For a moment all Duo could feel was the heat of Heero's body in front of him and Wufei's at his back. Heero's kisses were more aggressive than Wufei's, his mouth demanded and conquered…Duo could feel the way the tongue probed inside his cheeks, and explored…as Heero's hands roamed over both his lovers._

_They broke off after a while; it felt like hours but could have been only minutes, and Duo realized that Wufei had shifted on the sofa so he'd had one leg folded under him and one leg hanging free off the side of the sofa, supporting Duo's weight completely. Duo could also feel Wufei's erection against the small of his back as he twisted around and captured his other lover in a long kiss which had them both panting. Heero, in the meantime, had taken advantage of the break to divest his tank top. _

_Duo stiffened slightly. The three of them had never been naked together. It was a scary, tantalizing thought he didn't think too deeply about. Duo turned around and tugged at Wufei's shirt, wanting to feel bare skin against his back. While Wufei complied Heero leaned forward, his shorts tenting impressively, and pulled Duo's t-shirt off in one smooth move, which left him gasping. Then, keeping his eyes on both Wufei and Duo, Heero hooked two fingers into his waistband and pulled off his shorts. _

_Heero's erection was as impressive as his Gundam's Buster rifle. It was big and …rather scary; when Duo thought of it going into him… _

"_Take off your clothes Duo," Heero instructed softly. "Wufei, help him with his shoes."_

_It was then that Duo noticed that his hands were shaking slightly. Enough to make him think that unlacing his shoes was going to be a long process. Wufei obediently leaned forward, his upper torso muscles rippling and started to work on Duo's shoes. Duo watched the way the loose pants Wufei wore rode down, revealing the indent where his tail bone ended. It was like looking into forbidden territory. Technically, it wasn't anything new since Wufei had had sex with Duo but then, Duo had topped._

_Now he was sure the other two were going to top him and… he was scared at the prospect of all those…damn…after taking off his shoes Wufei stood up and slid off his white cotton pants letting them pool around his ankles._

_Wufei was by no means an exhibitionist and he was more self-conscious about being naked than Heero was. But lit by the light streaming through the curtainless windows, he looked enticing and perfect. Not even Heero had __that__ clearly defined muscles... the sort obtained only from hours of sword and martial arts practices. His erection was longer and narrower than Heero's, and equally impressive._

_Duo pressed his legs together as Heero started to work on the button on Duo's waistband. "No," Duo said weakly_

"_Loose the hair tie," Heero told Wufei, ignoring Duo's protest as he pulled down the zip. "Leave your hair in a braid, otherwise it'll get in my mouth." Duo did not ask why his hair was going to wind up in Heero's mouth._

_Wufei let his hair loose with one hand while helping Duo stand with the other, so Heero could pull down his jeans. In a synchronized move -- Duo would have bet they'd practiced before if it wasn't for the fact they'd never done it before -- Wufei pulled Duo's feet off the ground so Heero could ease his jeans off him completely._

_Then Wufei gently placed him back on the floor and gave him a push on the center of the chest so he fell back on the sofa, dressed now only in his braid. There was no denying that he was the weakest of the three. Duo might be the best pilot and he might be able to pick any lock in less than a minute but in his own house, naked and sprawled across the sofa, he was painfully aware of his inadequacy. _

_Wufei knew how to use his entire body as a weapon. Heero was a weapon – extremely strong and brute strength did count. While Duo wanted to have sex with his lovers, faced with two impressive erections (not his) all he could think was that he was really going to get it._

_Common sense told him that anal sex couldn't be all that painful if done properly but he was also aware of his inability to defend himself compared to the other two. He would have no way of protecting himself it they turned him over and pinned him to the sofa and used him like…that horrid man had done when he was kid. Now there were two of them and they were both so capable of forcing him, even if he was not ready._

"_Guys," he said, slightly nervously. "I don't think I'm ready for this."_

_Wufei shrugged elegantly making no move to sit. "There is never a right time to do something you don't want to do," he said philosophically, stepping over his pants which were discarded at his feet. _

"_Look, you are not the one who's going to be ..." Duo almost shouted, his semi-erection wilting. "…be…"_

"_We are not going to rape you." Heero sounded shocked. "Duo!"_

_Duo felt bad. What was he doing? It was a relationship no matter the number of people involved and it was all about giving and receiving. If he could only receive…_

"_I'm nervous," he said in a small voice._

"_I'll insert a finger into you," Heero said practically. "Nothing more. And Wufei will be there to make sure I don't do anything else."_

"_Bring out a tranquilizer gun," Duo joked weakly. He faltered when Heero seem to consider the idea. "Uh."_

_In reply Heero kissed Duo again, holding him steady with one hand, while reaching for Wufei with the other. There was a whoosh and Wufei practically fell on top of them from the force of Heero's pull on his arm. "Suck my finger," Heero said, presenting it to Wufei. Duo would have preferred lube but had one or the other gone in search of the elusive tube, he would have bolted out in during the break._

_It was almost erotic to watch Wufei work on Heero's single digit – almost as if he had been practicing. Duo watched the way Wufei's cheeks hollowed and the way Heero's eyelids fluttered closed – and groaned. His groan registered as the start of their – experiment since Heero pulled Duo close and…_

"Look," Duo grumbled. "Do you want to hear the rest of it?" He looked at Quatre who was listening to him red-faced but fascinated, absentmindedly playing with a foot high version of Relena the pop-singer (leather and silk-covered). "It's just…"

"Yes, I do," Quatre said, squeezing the doll. He was practically panting as helistened and Duo predicted a nosebleed in the near future.

"You just pushed one of its boobs in," Duo pointed to the doll. "And it doesn't look as if it's going to pop out."

"Knew something was feeling soft and squishy," said Quatre, holding up the doll for close observation. He tried to force the indented part back out by squeezing the sides but the only part of the doll which was malleable seemed to be its breasts. "Oh, well," said Quatre shrugging, pushing the other breast in as well. He smoothed down the bleached fiber which served as hair and put the doll back in the rack. "There – the male version of Relena."

"I think that's called Zechs," Duo said with a serious face. The two boys looked at the doll and then at each other and burst into laughter.

"So, what happened afterwards?" Quatre asked.

"Well, if you really want to know…"

"…_.no," Duo almost shouted as he scooted back in the sofa. He was scrunched up into a small ball at the farthest corner, knees up to his chest, arms around his legs. He was naked so the only defense he had was keeping his legs close together and tightening his muscles. "I…don't want to…"_

"_It won't hurt," Heero said gently._

_Duo wasn't sure as to what exactly he was afraid of – the thought of pain or the thought of how he would react when Heero's finger was inside him. He had reacted very badly with Wufei at the suggestion of anal sex before and that had been utterly humiliating. He did not want the people he cared about very much and respected more than anyone else in the world to see him reduced to a blubbering idiot. What if he started to cry or…_

"_It's not bad at all," Wufei, the person who'd had anal sex exactly once in his life, told Duo._

"_Yeah," said Heero turning around and grabbing Wufei. "I'll show you…"_

_Wufei looked surprised that he had been picked for the demonstration but did not protest when Heero practically threw him on the sofa and made him lift his legs. Duo sat up, feeling slightly winded but also disappointed at his protests had been accepted so easily…when Heero pushed a finger inside Wufei._

_From the look on Wufei's face, it was obvious he was wishing he was anywhere else than at Duo's feet, with Heero working away at him from the inside. However, as Heero probed deeper, his expression changed from one of embarrassed discomfort to something close to surprised-bliss as his body arched upwards._

"_Heee..ro," Wufei almost shouted as the other boy added a second finger, kissing Wufei's inner thigh which was close to his face. Duo watched Heero suck Wufei's sensitive skin near his knee while working in two fingers. Wufei squirmed in pleasure, his head brushing Duo's feet…Heero put his free hand on Wufei's erection and pressed against the sensitive head. Then he methodically started to feel Wufei's cock, up and down, following the throbbing vein on the underside. Then, as he worked in three fingers, Heero closed his hand in a rough grip and moved it in a slow, unhurried vertical movement, rotating his grip once in a while._

_Wufei lasted about five minutes against Heero's capable hands. He was panting and gasping, biting his lower lip to stop himself from crying out. Duo hadn't even known that Wufei was a screamer. He was enthralled by the show that was going on not two inches away from him. Wufei was sweating, flushed, his eyes closed tightly as if unwilling to look – and Heero concentrated on the boy he was pleasuring with all his attention. _

_It was making Duo feel excited and he unconsciously spread his legs a bit to relieve the pressure. He was hard and dripping and ached to be touched. Now, if only the other two did not act as if they had forgotten Duo was even there. Or maybe they had…_

_Wufei came with a strangled cry, His back arching, one hand clutching onto Duo's ankle by his shoulder. Heero looked up unconcerned that his erection was slapping his stomach and crawled over Wufei to Duo, pinning him with a gaze. There should have been something disgusting about Heero using Wufei's come as lubricant to effortlessly put a finger into Duo's tight passage_, _but there wasn't. It was done so swiftly that Duo did not have the time to panic. _

_It felt strange – not uncomfortable but not pleasant, the way it was pushed inside like a-- and Heero found his prostate. Duo gasped, arching up, claming his inner muscles around the digit, kicking Wufei in the stomach in the process. Too sated to react, Wufei tilted his head to look at Duo and grinned sleepily. _

_It was not as unpleasant as imagined, there was something erotic about the whole process now that the finger was in him – it felt very nice and Duo liked it. He was starting feel embarrassed that he had made a huge fuss over nothing. He wondered if he should tell Heero that he was ready for another finger and that it was alright. He was not going to panic and maybe they should really get on with it…_

_He opened his mouth to tell Heero that they should really get a move on it…he was close to coming just from having a finger up his asshole, just that he wanted to word it properly so he was not going to come out sounding like the Slut of the Century. He squirmed a bit and managed a faint, "eh."_

_Heero pulled out so fast Duo gasped. "Is that enough for you, for today?" Heero asked._

"_I…"_

"_Do you want to stop now?"_

"_I…"_

"_Was it uncomfortable? Things do get uncomfortable since you haven't done it in a while," Heero continued. "Shall I insert something else other than a finger?"_

"_Eh?" Duo managed at last. "What?"_

"_How about my tongue," Heero suggested._

"_No!" The cry came, not from Duo but from Wufei who looked repulsed by the idea but also fascinated. Heero turned towards Wufei and must have seen that fascination overweighed disgust and proceeded to tell the Chinese boy of the joys of rimming._

"_Uh, guys…" Duo said weakly._

"_You have nerve-endings there…" Heero lectured Wufei._

"_Um…" Duo tried again. He wanted to say that he was ready and waiting._

"_It's not medically recommended but…"_

"_Hello…"_

"_Now if you require a demonstration…"_

_Last thing Duo waned to see was another demonstration, this time of Heero rimming Wufei. He sat up, stepped on Wufei's abdomen, Heero's chest and got off the sofa at the other end. "I think I've had enough," he spat out as he picked up his discarded clothes._

"_Uh, Duo," said Wufei lifting his head. "You did well today."_

_Duo wanted to scream in frustration. _

"_We will do something more in a few days time," Heero offered._

_Duo practically ran to his room, slammed the door and didn't come out the entire day._

"Oh," said Quatre, flicking a doll, making its head go flying. It landed at the foot of a three year old shopping with her mother. The child picked up the yellow blob, studied it for a moment then burst into tears. Duo was slightly put out when he saw that his friend was trying very hard not to laugh at him.

"We'd better get out of here," Duo said, with a grimace.

"Let's go back to headquarters," Quatre said sounding dispirited. "Noin is supposed to come back today, right?"

"Just a mo," Duo said. "I need to pick up a thing or two for my boyfriends."

3.2: The Return of Noin

Wufei considered killing Duo – only the look of embarrassment on Duo's face stopped him from doing just that.

"I thought you were going home after your session with the new recruits," Trowa said, trying to sound normal.

"Will you look at that," Shaun sniggered. "God, where did you pick it from…what are you going to use it for?"

"I remembered the officers' showers," Wufei replied through gritted teeth. "I thought I'll shower before I left for home and …since Heero was in office…I'd drop by…"

In fact, he had hoped both Duo and Heero would be there since Wufei had noticed that whenever Heero did not have lessons, Duo skipped school as well. The first time Wufei had become aware of Duo skipping classes he had told Duo in no uncertain terms what exactly he thought of people who squandered away free education. Afterwards, Duo skipped classes only when Heero did not have classes. And quite frankly, Wufei was getting tired of listening to Heero go on and on about how to help Duo over some his problem and how not to rush him into anything. It was almost as if Heero was more interested in Duo and Wufei was just a tag-along. Being asked the demonstrate how fun sex can be Duo's benefit made him feel like a trained monkey. The physicals actions had been nice but afterwards Wufei wondered if Heero had actually done that to him or had imagined he was doing it with Duo. Was he just a substitute until Duo was ready for the main event?

"You sure are a freak to buy those for your friends," Shaun hollered as he leaned against the file cabinet.

"Shut up," Duo shouted.

"I didn't think you'd have company," Wufei had replied.

"Shaun brings us coffee at random intervals," Heero offered.

"You mean he saw Wufei, then Duo and me walk into your office and wanted to know what was going on so he brought up some undrinkable beverage," Quatre said, scowling at Shaun who was laughing hysterically.

"I hear you were an orphan," Shaun said to Duo, taunting him. "You parents sold you to a mad scientist so they could get money to buy a shuttle ride off L2. You must have missed out on a lot."

"Don't even go there," Duo fumed.

"Well, if you're buying stuffed toys for your house mates, it must be because you are trying to pass on what you missed as a child to everyone else," Shaun said with narrowed eyes, his barb hitting right on target.

"Shut up," Wufei bellowed, seeing Duo turn speechless. "It's nothing. Duo knew I always wanted a…eh…" green frog which squirmed when squeezed in the middle. "…a stuffed toy," he finished weakly.

"Really," Shaun said, his voice laced with disbelief. "And I suppose you always wanted a pink elephant, too," he said to Heero.

Heero looked perplexed. "I think it's nice," he offered tentatively.

"So you guys into mutilating stuffed toys in your spare time?" Shaun wanted to know. "Oooh, little kittens, beware."

"Why don't you go make more coffee," Quatre growled, seeing that Shuan was making Duo uncomfortable.

"I thought people who play with little froggies and elephants drank milk," Shaun answered back. "Poor dear missing your mummy already."

Heero opened his mouth, most probably to comment on the milk but Duo intervened.

"Fuck off," Duo said, his fists clenched.

"Oh, I forgot," Shaun smacked himself on the forehead. "You don't have a mummy. I bet she never even wanted you."

Wufei surged forward before Duo could move, picking up the annoying brat by the collar and lifting him clean off the floor.

"Not the face," Shaun said as Wufei brought up a fist. "You wouldn't want obvious signs of assault on me, would you?"

"I really don't care," Wufei said struggling to calm himself. "I will not have you making such degrading comments about my friends and me…"

"But you deserve it," Shun spat at Wufei. "You Gundam pilots think you own the world when all you are is a bunch of pathetic…"

"Wufei!" The shocked female voice broke up the group as effectively as a bucket of cold water.

Wufei wordlessly tossed Shun away so he hit the file cabinet _hard_ and slumped to the floor. Then he turned around calmly and regarded the new comer. "Noin," he said. "What are you going to do…tell Sally I…" He broke off as he saw the person accompanying Noin. "What's he doing here?"

Wufei heard Duo whisper something close like Lightning Barbie to Quatre but he was too busy staring to turn around and confirm it.

Zechs Marquis had lost weight.[2 Not much, but enough to show, since he hadn't been exactly a fat person start off with. Now he was bordering on being skinny and his long hair looked neglected. But Zechs was still Zechs and was hard for him to look bad. He was paler than before, as if he hadn't seen much sun and was dressed in a thick, bright red, high necked wool sweater and a pair of black slacks. As usually, he was wearing knee high boots but his mask was missing. His cheekbones were more prominent and his eyes spoke of fatigue -but his face was calm. As Noin spoke, the Lightning Baron leaned against the door frame and regarded the room with a faint smile on his lips.

"I asked him to come with me," Noin said, practically glowing with pride as Zechs Marquise stepped through the doorway in to the office. "He's going to be one of us from now on."

"You've got to be kidding," Duo shouted. "He's going to be one of us…" Wufei wonder if they would being in more male uniforms or dress Zechs in a blouse as well.

"I know there are some hard feelings left over from the war but…" Noin said trying to pacify Duo. "Zechs can be invaluable to us in helping out…"

"Excuse me," said Duo butting in again. "Are we talking about the same guy who tried to blow away Earth in the name of peace and blew away a chunk in the upper…"

"The region of Earth Zechs fired upon was uninhabited," Noin said hurriedly. "He didn't mean any harm to come to people…"

"You mean, there was no mention of human habitations in your registers," Wufei said, stepping into the argument. "I know about how you operate. If they don't show up on your records, then they aren't humans at all, are they? And Zechs might have fired upon a jungle but think of all the animals and land he destroyed. That land is going to be a wasteland for the next five generations." As he spoke, Wufei looked up to Zechs to see if he would defend himself. Apart from looking paler, Zechs did not react to the verbal barb. Instead, he crooked his head and continued to look into the distance as if he was observing something on the horizon.

"I suppose you are going to disregard Mr. Winner's little episode, where he shot down a colony and his fellow pilot," Noin said sharply, her temper coming to play as her loved one was attacked.

"Leave Quatre out of this," Trowa said equally sharply. "He was under the influence of the Zero system when that happened."

"No," Quatre said sharply. "There's no need to make excuses on my behalf." He stepped forward, brushing past Wufei and Duo to stand face to face with Noin. "What I did was inexcusable and…"

"You were not yourself then," Zechs spoke for the first time, his voice that same timbre that used to send shivers down Wufei's spine. He might not have met Zechs face to face but one did not need to do that to know the guy. "I take full responsibility for my actions with the White Fang. I was not drugged, lied to, or under the influence of any sub-zero system…" The self deprecating smile as he said it made him look more human "… so I and I alone am to blame for what I did."

"That's not going to help, is it?" Duo said sharply. "You have no right to be here…so…"

"Let him be," Heero said softly, speaking for the first time. "This is a place where we absolve our sins and start fresh. Everyone deserves that much."

"Heero." Wufei cringed mentally but Zechs did not comment on the fact that Heero was stroking the head of a pink stuffed elephant on his desk as he spoke. "I…thank you."

"There's nothing to thank," Heero said softly meeting Zechs' eyes. "But I'm not going to shake your hand."

Zechs closed his eyes briefly and titled his head to show he understood. Then he looked at the final member of the room and walked up to him. "Are you going to condemn me as well?" he said softly.

Wufei looked at Shaun who was still lying in the same inelegant sprawl on the floor where Wufei had thrown him, his mouth slightly open, staring at Zechs with adoring eyes. Wufei was sure the boy was going to start panting and licking Zechs boots at any moment. The boy's father had been a loyal OZ soldier but he was there worshipping Zechs as if he was the next Earth Primus.

"I wonder if there'd have been a place to Treize here, too," Wufei said before he could help it.

"Ah," said Zechs, breaking his gaze away from the green-haired boy at his feet. He looked at Wufei and as he did, it was as if he had aged – his mouth twisted into a grimace and his eyes sparkled with emotions. "I remember – you were close to him weren't you."

"At his dying moment, I was closer to him than anyone else," Wufei replied evenly. "Perhaps if you hadn't sold your loyalties so easily, he might have been alive."

"That's enough," Noin said sharply. "Come Zechs, I'll show you to your quarters and…"

"I'm sure you have work to catch up," Zechs said, not even looking at Noni. The dismissal was clear. "Why don't you go attend to it while I look around."

"Your sister is also waiting for you," Noin protested weakly.

"My sister has enough to distract herself," Zechs said uncaringly.

"But you can't go around the headquarters by yourself," Noin said.

"I'll have an escort," Zechs said, holding out a hand to Shaun. "You seemed to be an outcast as well, here. What's your name?"

"Sh…Shaun." The look Shaun gave Zechs had Wufei feeling slightly nauseated. It was the sort of look Princess gave their Prince where they'd been rescued from the fire-breathing dragon. He took Zechs' hand and was helped to his feet carefully. "Well, gentlemen," Zechs said, giving a small bow to the room in general. "It was nice meeting you and I'm sure we'll be seeing each other frequently." He ushered Shun before him with a hand on the small of his back and then followed out, closing the door behind him.

"I can't believe the nerve, having that guy working with us," Duo fumed. "And that…that brat…"

"We'll see how it works out," Trowa said softly. "It's not as if we have blameless pasts."

"But that doesn't mean he had to work here," Duo protested. "Ever heard of social services? And how could you be so calm about it," he added turning to Heero. "And you…" apparently it was Wufei's turn to feel the heat. "…must you keep bring up Treize…he's dead, remember?"

"I'm going home," Wufei said, feeling drained. His entire day from Jasmine to Zechs was starting to feel like some nightmare. "I'll see you later…" He reached forwards, grabbed the green stuffed frog and packed it into his backpack with his sweaty workout clothes and hurried out before anything else happened.

[1 I have very little experience with threesomes so from now on, my research will include mangas containing threesomes.

[2 It isn't too big a surprise that Noin had brought back Zechs, right?

In the Endless Waltz, Zechs walks into the Preventer HQ and ppl just accepted him. It doesn't happen that way, there had to have been at least a token protest in his name.


	4. Chapter 4

A/n –Stray (who betas for me despite all the work) tells me I'm writing angst…so angest warning (slight)

Chapter 4

4.1: Division by three

When Heero first saw the girl sitting next to Wufei, he was sure it was some mistake in the seating order. Wufei did not sit in the middle row of a lecture theater[1, especially not a half empty lecture theater (Application of Quantum Mechanics in Nuclear Physics was not very popular subject) and he most certainly did not sit next to a female.

Heero had arrived early, having had a free hour before, to sit in his usual place. The lecture theaters were large, after all they were constructed with a large crowd in mind and there was always enough space for everybody (apart from during Cultural Studies of Pornography which was a very popular lecture). But Heero preferred to sit in the second row, the first row being too close to the projector, and Wufei always sat next to him in the left hand seat. That way Heero had a good view of the main entrance (a habit left over from the war) and his right hand was free for movement (though he did not bring a gun to the lecture with him).

That day Wufei arrived late, almost running, followed by a long haired female who was slightly familiar. She was obviously Chinese and was wearing a traditional Chinese tunic over a dark green denim. They both walked past Heero deep in conversation…

"…away from me," Wufei was saying. "I am not going to do that. What do you think I am, you stupid woman?"

At least some things remained constant in the universe. .

But they had both walked up to the middle row, Wufei not even acknowledging Heero, and had sat down in two free seats, the female gesturing wildly as she spoke. Heero had been about to go up to Wufei to inquire about his change in seating when the lecturer walked in and he was forced to sit still.

The lecture was nicknamed Unclear Physics for a reason. To Heero, the man might as well have been teaching ancient Greek as he sat through the lecture, counting minutes for it to be over. He was starting to discover that he was extremely hurt that Wufei had chosen to sit next to a woman instead of him. It was not as if they had a prior agreement but they were lovers and for Wufei to go sit with someone else was almost as if he was making a statement –was Wufei cheating on him?. They had sat in the same order since they had begun taking the lecture together and the loss of Wufei left him with a feeling similar to the one he'd had felt the first time he'd left the house without his gun – well, almost.

Did that mean Wufei was going to be avoiding him from now on? What did that mean in light of their relationship? He kept on looking at Wufei wondering if there was going to be some indication as to what was going on but all he could see was his profile as the other boy continued to take down notes on some equation about the Schrödinger theorem.[2 In contrast, it was obvious the girl was not paying any attention to the lecture.

Heero was sure that he had not seen her before which meant she wasn't even a part of the school –or a new student. He still catalogued people he met in the hallway, a habit he did not even notice anymore. Someone _that_ pure bred Chinese would have been hard to miss. She would scribble short notes which she would pass over to Wufei who would ignore them with an impassive face. However, Heero did not think Wufei was enjoying himself.

The girl would occasionally prod Wufei to get his attention, which did not amount to anything but Heero was getting annoyed by the sight of the girl elbowing Wufei. She should have at least waited until the lecture was over to get his attention….

"…Mr. Yuy." Heero realized that the lecturer had been calling his name for sometime while he had been staring at Wufei. Even Wufei was staring at him.

"What?" he asked, cursing his lapse in concentration.

"Back with us are you?" the lecturer said mockingly. "Now can you please answer the question?"

"What question?" Heero blurted out. "Sir."

"The one I asked you about the …oh…" the lecturer was starting to lose his temper and Heero was beginning to feel uncomfortable. He did not like it when he was the center of attention. The main intent of any public situation was to blend in and he could not have been any more conspicuous if he had showed up to the lecture naked. Everyone in the lecture hall seemed to be collectively holding their breath, probably feeling sorry for Heero but at the same time glad that they had been spared the questioning. He pointedly ignored Wufei who was trying to mouth the answer to him and chose to glare at the lecturer who looked like a boiled lobster. "Can you kindly tell me the theory behind particle acceleration for the creation of anti-matter?"

"No." Heero did not bother trying to fabricate a half-assed answer like Duo would have done.

"Were you paying attention to the lecture?"

"No."

"What _were_ you paying attention to," the lecturer asked in a strained voice.

"Them." Heero pointed towards Wufei and the girl.

"Mr. Chang," The lecturer sounded puzzled as he focused on the couple. Wufei was already famous among the lectures for being a model student – one who did not misbehave and handed over the assignments right on time. "Why would…" the lecturer paused, his eyes fixed on the girl who continued to whisper to Wufei despite the drama unfolding before her. "…who are you, young lady?"

"I'm Jasmine Yao," the girl said clearly, tossing back her hair.

"I've never seen you at my lectures before." The lecturer sounded puzzled.

"That's because I'm not a taking this course," the girl …no…Jasmine answered. "I'm not even of this school."

It was the straw that broke the camel's back. "That's it," the lecturer bellowed. "Outsiders have no permission to sit in to the lecture."

"Fine," Jasmine said flippantly. She stood up and shrugged. "I'll leave." The insolent manner she said it had a few tittering.

"Mr. Chang," the lecturer said, fuming. "Kindly escort your girlfriend outside and stay out."

"She's not my girl…" Wufei protested.

"I don't care if she's your second cousin from England." The lecturer was clearly struggling not to say anything vulgar. "Just get out…both of you…no…Yuy, get out as well. All three of you can do whatever you want as long as you're not doing it during my lecture."

Heero wordlessly picked up his books and walked out after a red-faced Wufei and a triumphant-looking Jasmine. He was aware of all the students there staring at the three of them and knew they had caused a spectacle but he was too riled up to be bothered.

"Forget it," Wufei was saying. "You have caused enough trouble for me."

"I will not leave until you agree to come with me," she said in an imperious voice.

"Wu…'Fei?" Heero said stepping into the conversation. Two dark haired heads turned as one in his direction.

"Yes," the girl said looking slightly puzzled.

"Heero," Wufei said, sounding angry. "Did you _have_ to point me out during the lecture?"

"I was just wondering why you decided to sit in a different place," Heero said as an explanation. He knew Wufei was angry at him for the incident but Heero had thought Wufei would realize that his intention had not been to cause trouble.

"Because me, I've got some _woman_ following me," Wufei practically spat out. "She has decided that I should come meet her family since they are also from L5. Having a common point of origin does not automatically make me want to meet her relatives. "

"I am not some woman," the girl said. "My name in Yao Fei Yen. When you called Wufei by his shortened name, for a moment I thought you were calling me." She turned to Wufei and said in a deprecating voice, "You are Wufei, you should not let outsiders deface your name. It was given to you with love and pride by your parents…"

"Shut it, woman," Wufei said automatically. Heero waited for his boyfriend to say something about him not defacing Wufei's name but that sentence never came.

"I thought your name was Jasmine," Heero said with a frown.

"I use it to blend in with others." Her voice said others were commoners while she was royalty. "My name means a swallow bird," the girl…Fei Yen said, looking pleased. "You must be Heero Yuy, Wufei's friend." She held out her hand the way Europeans did.

Heero did not take the proffered hand and continued to scowl at the girl. "Why don't you leave Wufei alone," he said firmly.

"It's for him to decide," Fei Yen said smugly. "I just want him to come meet my family. They would be honored to meet the surviving son who would rule L5."

"There is no L5," Heero stated.

"But the spirit lives on." The reply was almost cliché.

"I've done my share for the war," Wufei said sounding tired. "I just want to be left in peace."

"From what I hear you spent the war hiding," Fei Yen said angrily. "You decided to show your face after the war was over, after everything was over. My grandparents and my parents lived through it. You owe it to your people to come and at least speak to them."

"I refuse," Wufei said straightening up. "I have work to do, not bother with nonsense like this. And what do you know about war?"

"Then I'll follow you," the annoying girl said triumphantly. "Where ever you go, I'll be there. All your lectures, lunch, work. I'll follow. Even the little boys' room," she added as an afterthought. "I've got three brothers so you haven't got anything I haven't seen before."

In retaliation to the statement Wufei looked at the girl for a moment then dropped his back pack. Heero was startled to hear the books hit the ground since, usually, Wufei practically worshiped his books. With speed that astounded all of them Wufei moved – he picked up the girl, pinned her to the wall and punched her in the stomach. Heero knew his lover was holding back – Wufei was extremely strong and had he used his full strength, the girl would be dead. She wheezed, her mouth open in shock.

"Every time you bother me, I'll do this to you," Wufei said slowly. "Don't mistake me for someone who doesn't hit women. I do not need weaklings like you bothering me, understood?"

Too winded to speak, the girl nodded as she was let go. She fell to the floor clutching her stomach and gasping. Her eyes were slightly fearful and her lower lip trembled.

"Yuy," Wufei snapped. "Get her out of here. I don't want her blocking the pathway when Professor Wilder comes out. I have to apologise to him for what happened at the lecture and…"

Heero was slightly hurt that Wufei had called him 'Yuy' as if they were strangers. However, he was glad the girl incident came to an end. He found the girl too intense; there was something troubling about the way she acted. Not even Relena's pursuing of him bordered on that sort of extremism.

"Just do it," Wufei snapped. "I've had enough of people trying to treat me like some puppet at their beck and call." The way he said it while looking at Heero implied Wufei included Heero in the statement. "I'm going to be late today, so don't expect me for dinner."

It was clearly a dismissal and by then the girl had recovered enough to stagger to her feet. She stared at Wufei for a bit but she was obviously scared of him and did not linger. Instead, she limped out the side door, holding onto the wall for support, her eyes filled with unshed tears. Heero actually felt sorry for her – but had he known that in a few days time Wufei would be the one going to her, he would have happily killed her.

Heero walked out as well before the lecturer he had angered came out. Unlike Wufei, he did not consider Professors to be Gods. Angry at Wufei for dismissing him, Heero turned around and walked into the men's room. He did not need to use it but while lectures were going on, the toilets were empty and gave a semblance of privacy for him to think. He needed to try and figure out why he felt hurt at Wufei's curt dismissal. He washed his hands, then used the water on his palms to try and push back his hair. It had grown longer and he would need to cut it. Maybe he should cut it really short like they did in the Armed Forces…

Heero was absentmindedly looking at himself in the mirror he noticed the main door open, then shut hastily without the person entering the toilet. He froze, looking at it in disbelief. Heero had been trained to capture details of an image presented to him for two seconds. And he knew he was not mistaken. The person who had been about to enter the room had been wearing a black t-shirt, blue jeans, sneakers and a long chestnut braid.

It had been Duo and Duo had avoided him. Heero was stunned by the action. For one, he knew Duo did not have lectures until three o'clock and that was another two hours away. Duo never came in early if he could help it. And why had he not spoken to Heero – did that mean Duo had come to see Wufei, only?

4.2: Division by two

"No," Quatre said firmly as he stood in the doorway. Trowa thought that the blond was overreacting but he could think of no way to tell him that without sounding rude.

"At least let me come in," he said instead.

"Not today, Trowa," Quatre said with a shake of his head. "You know I'll cave in if I let you talk me into it. So, no... Tell Cathy I am busy…make some excuse. I'm not going to pretend to be your boyfriend for the sake of your sister anymore."

Trowa almost turned around and walked away just then. What did Quatre mean by pretending to be his boyfriend; as far as he was concerned they were together. He'd considered Quatre's reluctance to give a clear word a sort of game. The smaller pilot had told Duo he was going to make Trowa pay for sleeping with Heero when he knew Quatre liked him. It had been a defensive move – Trowa had been sure Quatre would not be able to match the darkness within him.

Then Quatre had surprised them all and Trowa had come to realize that perhaps the Quatre he had fallen for was not a real person. The real 04 pilot was a tough solider who could kill but also a sensitive person who could live with it and not turn into a monster. The real Quatre was stronger, more compassionate and more composed – he knew what he wanted.

It made Trowa fall for him again and he could truly say that Quatre was the only person for whom he'd ever felt that way.

And he had thought the feelings were mutual.

"I can't lie to Cathy," Trowa said, leaning against the doorframe and crossing a leg casually. "She said she'd cook, so please, it's just dinner."

"You don't have to lie," Quatre said with a grimace. "I'll take night shift today – I have to sort out a few papers."

"Are you angry with me because I slept with Heero?" Trowa asked, floundering. "It's not as if I'm still doing that."

Quatre made to slam the door but Trowa did not move and the door stayed open. "Trowa," Quatre said in frustration. "Sex isn't the issue here."

"All right," Trowa said cautiously. He tried to school his expression to one of puzzlement but he wondered just how successful it was. Cathy always complained he'd be good at poker. He could pretend to be different people and mimic their expressions but stripped of his cover, he felt bland – expressionless.

"It's that I want more." The expression on Quatre's face said he was trying hard to explain. "Maybe it is Heero," he admitted at last. "When I first found out, I was so jealous. There I was, in …I liked you quite a bit and there you were screwing Heero in your Gundam. Damnit, Trowa sometimes I could feel you, you know. In my head, I could feel you as you…" He blushed adorably but now Trowa did not know what to say.

"I'm sorry," Trowa said at last.

"Then you broke up with him and I sat in the garden under your feet while Heero wanted to know what he did wrong," Quatre continued. "He was so hurt and you didn't care at all. Trowa how can you sleep with someone for so long and not develop any feelings for the person? How can you be so cold?"

"I care about Heero," Trowa protested. "He means a lot to me."

"Bu..t what …you and him," Quatre said in a small voice.

"He needed the physical contact," Trowa explained. "When he gets stressed he needs to feel someone else."

"A hug couldn't do," Quatre said a little bitterly.

"For Heero, the only physical contact that means anything is sex," Trowa said with conviction. "Sometimes I wonder who did that to him. You think Duo has problems, uh? Heero has containers full of them. You think I didn't care for him…maybe not enough to sort him out but I did help him."

Quatre wordlessly looked away.

"Give me a chance," Trowa said softly, making one last attempt. "Quatre, I don't know how you want me to act." Perhaps he should not presume sex was a part of it. Maybe, he should pretend he didn't want that sort of thing. But he really didn't feel brotherly towards Quatre- it was ironic that he felt more brotherly towards Heero even after having had sex with him for months than Quatre – the guy he'd only kissed once rather briefly.

"I can't forgive you that easily," Quatre said softly. "Can you give a commitment, Trowa? I don't want a one night stand, I don't want something like what you had with Heero – I want something from you that you can't give. I'm angry with you, still and scared to give you a commitment."

"I can try," Trowa offered. It was the best he could do.

"Maybe," Quatre said, his eyes downcast. "I don't want to get hurt by you. I was hurt once and you don't even know how much. How would you like it if I started going out with someone else?"

"Will you?" Trowa felt cold sweat break out all over. "I like you a lot." He added, in case that wasn't clear.

"You think I'm easy?" Quatre said, looking up. His cheeks were blazing with anger and Trowa thought it made him look cute. But he wisely refrained from mentioning that. "I think you owe me a lot more after the hell you've put me through. If you think I'm going to jump into bed with you just because you like me and you feed me along with your sister, then you are mistaken. You'd better start shaping up."

Trowa nodded, stepping back this time when the door closed in his face. He stared at it for a while then sighed. He had no idea what to say or do. Things were rapidly spiraling out of control and everything he said seemed to sound wrong. His hands stuck in his pockets, Trowa strolled back to his apartment, climbed up the stairs two at a time and walked into his room.

And stopped. Standing by the window, looking down at the road below was a familiar figure. Trowa closed the door behind him and the person turned around unhurriedly, his face blank. Cursing Wufei, Duo and everyone around, Trowa was walking forward, his hands outstretched. '_A hug will have to do_,' he thought.

"Heero," he said. "What's wrong?" He knew this expression so well. The expression of someone lost, who didn't know how to admit he was lost.

"You need a bigger room," Heero said dispassionately.

4.3: Field Assignment

The garden of the Headquarters was a marvel of horticultural landscaping, designed by the same gardener who had designed the Sanq Castle. It was maze made up of bioengineered hedges fast growing on imported soil, eight feet tall and a greenish blue color. Each turn of the maze took to a small niche where something special awaited the one who walked by. The first turn was a small fish pond, about ten inches deep and full of small brightly colored fish, the second turn a small bench where two people could sit comfortably. There were about fifteen small secrets, each one different from the other, each a special enclosed space. It was amazing just how much could be fitted into a small enclosure with the correct planning.

Looking down from the floor below, the Floating garden (aptly named since it was on the balcony of the 27th floor) Shaun had a good look at it from the upper floor window. The maze was a complex geometrical structure with an open top. From above, he could see the only two people using it and scowled. Zechs was walking calmly through it, side by side with Princess Relena.

He turned back and walked to the office and picked up the stack of papers next to him. "Where does this go?" he asked Sally.

"That's for Quatre to sort," she said, looking frustrated. Since Lady Une was away, the whole administrative burden seemed to have fallen on Sally's shoulders; the only sensible person in the entire office. "He asked for night shift all of a sudden – I don't know why but I'm grateful." She added.

Shaun personally thought it was because Winner wanted to suck up to everybody but didn't say so. The last time he'd said something like that about a Gundam pilot, Sally had snapped at him, telling him he was mistaken. But Shaun couldn't stand those guys – those show offs who were so stuck up they never even smiled at him when they passed him on the corridor. And that Chang guy whom Sally seemed to hold in high regard, though the guy did not seem to return the sentiment.

Zechs in contrast had been very nice to him. The guy had listened to what Shaun had said, even down to his fashion advice. Really, red and black did not suit someone with such pale skin; it made him look like a vampire[3. When he had said it, Zechs had laughed and clapped him on the shoulder and said he was so used to dressing in red he sometimes forgot there was any other color.

They had walked the corridors of the headquarters with Shaun telling him everything. And Zechs had listened and asked him questions and Shaun had been aware of all the heads turning towards them. Zechs was a striking figure – Shaun had seen vid-shots of the guy during the war and he was more impressive in person. He had a charming smile, almost hunting and the way he moved…

With sigh, Shuan picked up the first letter on the stack and looked at it. He was not supposed to read official office documents but Sally never commented on it and he knew the paper work was just for backup and should he damage it, there would be no dire consequences There were two copies of each and every transaction in the form of two super computers at two different locations, one in Lady Une's office, the other in the basement of the building.

To him, it seemed all too complicated and excessive. Lady Une had assigned the paper work and it was being processed, double checked for errors. The paper he was holding was a field assignment for two Gundam pilots. Half curious Shaun looked up at the top of the paper.

Ah, a simple field assignment for Trowa Barton to see if he was fit for active duty. Shaun recalled that the guy had stopped a bullet meant for Princess Relena with his chest. Stupid guy, should have let the chick die as far as Shaun was concerned. He looked at the assignment details.

"A flower festival!" he exclaimed aloud.

"What," said Sally looking up from her screen. "Ah, yes…that assignment for Trowa. Une said she was going to arrange it before she left."

"But what's there to investigate on a flower festival in L4?" Shaun complained. To him, it looked like a free ticket to outer-space and a waste of money.

"We are trying to track people who are shipping endangered plants off Earth," Sally explained patiently. "It's illegal to send rare plants to outer-space and we believe that there might be a deal going on in the back ground, using the festival as a cover. There'll be thousands of plant dealers so it will be an ideal opportunity to see if our hunch is correct."

Shaun wouldn't have cared if people were shipping banana plants to L2 so that they could use the leaves as umbrellas.[4 He shrugged and looked at the report again. It was better than watching Zechs and Relena from the window.

The assignment was all code to him – the Barton guy was the tall one with the sister. Ah, he was partnered with Heero Yuy, the guy everyone said was Japanese even though he had blue eyes and looked nowhere near oriental. The mission was for two days –usual communication protocol and their contact in the inside was a flower trader who dealt in Asian roses.

Shaun yawned, got up and looked out at the balcony below. Zechs was arguing forcefully with Relena, both of them talking animatedly. Relena was using her power posturing, her back straight, her chin trust up front but Zechs was not budging either. Shaun licked his lips and looked away. Among everyone in the HQ, Zechs was by far the nicest. He had not been there for long but already Shaun liked him – a lot. He knew the man was complex, probably evil and also a little unstable- but he really didn't care. He had been treated with contempt by everyone but Zechs treated him like an equal.

"So," he said, turning around and leaning against the glass. "This flower thingy…will there be fire fights and stuff."

"I doubt it," Sally said dryly. "The war is over now and no one's going to thank us if we send kids into danger. Anyway, it's a simple mission, not something life-threatening. All we need is visual confirmation…"

He sighed and looked out again. Relena was holding on to Zechs' upper arm and even from the distance, tears were obvious. The bloody female was a menace. She had Heero Yuy so she should stick to him. Shaun could see the attraction in Heero; he was gorgeous, with those blue eyes and hair that screamed to be touched - but so cold. His eyes were so expressionless, almost the same as the Barton guy, who though good looking, actually covered half his face with his hair.

Shaun shrugged; he knew that Dorothy liked the blond guy who looked harmless but was as disturbing as the rest. The long-haired pilot- Duo, had to be gay. As far as Shaun was concerned anyone who had long hair like that was a walking advertisement for gayness. Maybe he should spread the word around the office that the braid wasn't the only thing that swung both[that'd mean he is bi ways for that guy …and to think they said his hair had been longer. He had read somewhere that one in five males was statistically gay so of those five, maybe, the Maxwell guy was the one. There was the Chinese guy –Shaun scowled at the memory of Wufei bearing down at him with his sword. It had been scary -and as much as he would have loved to see that face turn red after accusing Wufei of being gay, Shaun did not feel brave enough to face his wrath.

It was all right to feel a little self pity now and then. He was a cast out, taken in the same way people take in strays they feel sorry for. It did not make him feel welcome. It made him an outsider in an organization already full of social rejects. When Zechs had walked in, no one had welcomed him with open arms – apart from Noin -- and Shaun was sure that package included open legs as well.

But from the way Zechs treated Noin, he seemed to feel nothing towards her apart from sisterly affection. There were no rumors that they had been lovers before the war so he couldn't see how they were going to be lovers all of a sudden. Unless the guy had had a sudden shift of heart and had switched to …Relena!

They were hugging.

Below, in the secluded garden Zechs and Relena were hugging. Shaun practically broke his nose, jumping forward for a better look. He almost jumped when a hand fell on his shoulder. He spun around with his heart in him mouth to find Sally standing next to him. He cursed the woman as he remembered that though she worked as a doctor, she was also a solider and could walk silently when needed.

"It's nice to see they've made up," she said with a faint smile.

"Made up," Shaun said weakly. Those two were together!

"Hmm," Sally said thoughtfully. "They've been separated for so long; it's good to see some families can be mended."

"Families." _They were married!_

"Oh, I forgot," Sally said, clearly enjoying herself. "You don't know. Zechs is Relena's brother."

"Brother," Shaun parroted weakly.

"His real name is Miliardo Peacecraft," Sally said casually. "It's ironic that…"

"He's a prince," Shaun said at last.

"You could say that," Sally said after a bit of consideration. "It's not as though he's going to take up his title… or…"

Shaun spun away from the window, feeling sick. He was starting to wish Zechs was actually married to Relena or something like that. Hell, it wouldn't be as bad if Zechs was married to the Chang guy and that was the worst he could think of. No, the worst is: being married to Wufei _and_ being female. But for him to be a prince…was unthinkable. It was like betrayal. Shaun could not understand why he felt so hurt – it wasn't as if he liked the tall blond [really? it sounds as though he has a major crush on him- but as he pushed Sally away and ran out the room, he could feel a lump in his throat, which was threatening to turn into tears

4. 4: More Division

"Let's go through this again one more time, slowly," said Duo, gritting his teeth. "What did you do?"

"Maybe it's you who did something," Wufei said, sitting straight, looking at the wall over Duo's shoulder. "We both know Heero has a weak spot for you."

"That's rich coming from you," Duo snapped. "I haven't seen him the entire day –well once briefly but that's it. So it must have been you."

Wufei remained silent since he was starting to become aware that maybe the fault was his. Had he done something stupid, anything which would hurt Heero? Far from being the unfeeling bastard, Heero did have feelings –which did not mean he was a big cuddly bear waiting for his hug- but Heero did have a sensitive side. He had not meant to hit the girl –it was weighing on his mind a lot. While Duo was accusing him of hurting Heero's feelings he was wondering if he had been too rough on the girl. But she had been so annoying and manipulating ….and he hated being manipulated.

He wanted to run his life his own way, not by some stupid girl.

"I haven't seen him since the Physics lecture," Wufei said evasively.

"I thought the two of you usually have a free hour afterwards which you use to study in the library together," Duo grumbled.

"We did invite you," Wufei said skirting the issue.

"But did you do it today?" Duo sounded dangerous.

"Um," Wufei looked down at his feet. "There was this stupid woman and Heero got us kicked out of the hall and…"

"Rewind," Duo said sounding dangerous. "Let's start with the woman shall we?"

"There's nothing to say," Wufei said, feeling irritated. "Why don't you just give it a rest?"

"Shall I tell you why," Duo asked in a falsely pleasant voice. "Ready…" He reached forward and before Wufei could stop him, hit the replay button in their vid-comm unit. He mentally cringed as the mechanical voice of the recording played, "_you have one message. No visual unit connected. Playing sound now._"

He braced himself for the same cold tone as Trowa spoke. The voice managed to covey a feeling of displeasure no expression could.

"Wufei, Duo," There was pause. "Where are you two?" The tone was almost derisive. "Whatever your problems are I want you to deal with it. I'm taking Heero out to dinner with Cathy and me. When we get back, I expect the three of you to talk it out with Heero. I don't expect to see him hurting afterwards because if he still does, the two of you don't deserve him. Barton, out."

"_End of recording."_

"Let's go back to this girl shall we?" Duo said dangerously. "What girl?"

"Someone from L5," Wufei said reluctantly. "I don't think she's important and…" He looked at the time of the recording and frowned. "That's close to mid day…I know you don't have work or any lectures at that time. So why weren't you here you when the call came."

Duo looked away looking slightly uncomfortable. "I was busy," he said.

"Don't lie."

"I'm not," Duo said looking up sharply. "I don't lie."

"But you didn't answer the question either," Wufei pointed out. "Where were you?"

"Not here," Duo tired.

"Not good enough," Wufei snapped, standing up.

"I went to school, ok," Duo said looking frustrated.

"Why?" Wufei asked, not liking the sound of it. They could barely get Duo to school when he had lectures so for him to go there during his free time was as rare as rain on the moon. "And if you were there, why didn't you come and speak to either me or Heero?" He stopped, remembering something.

"I saw him- ok," Duo groused. "But he didn't see me…"

"How can you see him and him not see you?" Wufei pointed out. "This is Heero we're talking about not Relena. Maybe he thought you were avoiding him…"

"Maybe he thought you were traipsing around with some girl," Duo snapped back.

"Maxwell, why were you in school in your off time?"

"Maybe I wanted to catch up with a little studying," Duo said, crossing his arms defensively.

"Maybe I was born yesterday," Wufei snapped.

"Fine," Duo said, throwing up his hands, giving in. "I was hoping you wouldn't find out. I was avoiding you, all right?"

"What's going on?" Wufei asked with a sinking feeling.

"I…got a call from a student councilor," Duo admitted finally. "Apparently, I've been cutting far too many classes and unless I do something about it, they are going to call social services."

"Duo," Wufei felt stricken but the word came out harsh.

"I know," Duo snapped. "I was sort of going to keep it under wraps until I get it sorted out. No big deal…I met Mrs. Singh--- and she and--- I talked and---I've got her eating out my hand."

Mrs. Singh was a small Irish woman married to an Indian Professor and she was about as docile as a rabid fox. She was sly and she always caught her student. And when she set her conditions you either met them or packed your bags and left for the Moon colony.

"What did I tell you about skipping classes?" Wufei said wearily as he walked towards Duo. "If you mess up…"

"They might split us up," Duo finished. It had been one of Lady Une's demands. They had to prove they were not just machines but people with intelligence. "I know, I know…but sometimes I wonder if it's for the best."

"What do you mean?" Wufei asked, feeling doubtful. The way Duo had spoken with an almost defeatist attitude…as if he had given up.

"I know you think you'll be better off without me," Duo said, looking at his feet.

"What sort of half-assed thing is that?" Wufei bellowed as he walked up to Duo who was slumped on the sofa. He stood over Duo for a moment but the long-haired boy refused to look up. Feeling angry, Wufei grabbed Duo by the upper arms and hauled him up, intending to shake some sense into him. Duo cringed, and for a moment Wufei saw flash of fear in those purple eyes – like the time he'd tried to have sex with Duo and then he was shrugged off and Duo was at the other end of the room, panting.

"I'm sorry…," he said then stopped. It was something he was familiar with when dealing with his long-haired lover. Duo did not mention that he had been scared and Wufei knew he was not going to admit that Wufei's sudden move had intimidated him. It was not something Duo talked about at all. But Wufei had to try. "You know I didn't mean to …" _hurt you_ -- wrong thing to say "…er…" _rape you_ ha ha nice choice of words "…intimida…"

"Forget it," Duo snapped. "It's not exactly news that I'm a basket case. Why don't you just stop trying to manhandle me?"

"Manhandle you," Wufei said indignantly. "I was just about to shake some sense into you." But did that mean he was physically violent? Damn, he should not have hit that girl. He had killed people, blown up buildings and almost killed Noin. Why did he have to feel bad about this? Because Fei Yen wasn't evil …she didn't seem evil. She had the same brashness Duo had …only more …he was ignoring Duo who was now on the brink of losing his temper.

"Well, no need to worry. It's not like I'm about to shake up the nice little domestic scene between you and Heero," Duo spat.

"Me and Heero," Wufei repeated stupidly and un-grammatically. "Says the guy who was snuggling up to Heero because he broke a nail." Which was basically unfair since Duo had lost half his hair but the Chinese pilot was angry at the accusation that he was keeping Heero for himself.

"Says the guy who was dropping his pants for Heero before I was out the door," Duo shouted.

"I least I was willing to do it for both of you," Wufei said before he could stop himself saying it. He knew Duo couldn't help it, but that day, when Heero had orchestrated the entire three-way sex thing, Duo had submitted willingly. But the first time Wufei had initiated sex (well, technically it had been Duo and they had been together only a brief while) Duo had behaved as if he was being led to slaughter.

"So, what it comes back to is that," Duo said bitterly. "I know what I can't do it. You think I'm ignorant of my problem?"

"Hardly the thing I was accusing you of," Wufei snapped. "But…"

"Are you two bitch-slapping each other over Heero?" a tentative voice said, making them all turn around.

"Quatre!" Duo exclaimed.

"Winner," Wufei said in a slightly embarrassed voice.

"Domestic disputes are not my thing but I thought I'd drop in for a bit," Quatre said as he dropped into a chair heavily. "If you two can control yourself for a little while, we have a bit of a problem."

"Does it have anything to do with Trowa and Heero?" Wufei asked, sitting on a straight backed chaired carefully.

"I know he's taking out Heero to dinner but I was hoping it was because Cathy wanted to meet the guy whom she nursed for a month and not because you three had a falling out," Quatre said hopefully.

"You keep your man to yourself and we'll keep ours," Wufei said abruptly.

"Well," Quatre said a little hesitantly. "You see there is a slight problem there …I think I told Trowa it was basically over between us before it began."

"That's nice," Duo said harshly. "So now Trowa decides to bounce back to Heero."

"Maybe it was the other way around," Quatre said quickly. "From what I know, it was Heero who went to Trowa, not the other way around."

"Heero will not do that the moment he thinks he's alone," Duo said hotly.

"He already did," Wufei said dully. He remembered Heero coming to his room after Trowa had broken up with the Japanese pilot, lube in hand. From the look in Duo's face, it was obvious he was thinking the same thing.

There was a stunned silence followed by a slightly embarrassed cough from Quatre. "I suppose then that this is not a good time to tell you that they have a mission together on L4." He held out a small palm top for the other two to see.

"Hey," said Duo, grabbing it before Wufei could. "When do we get field missions?"

"Why do they get field missions together?" Wufei wondered aloud. "So…in the current situation, this is bad."

"Very bad," Duo said.

"Well, it could be nothing," Quatre said softly. "They just went for dinner, not eloped."

"Didn't Trowa take you for dinner with Cathy last time?" Duo said with a scowl. "And tried to screw you afterwards. It means a lot to him to take some to meet his sister."

"You mean like his next lover," Wufei said dryly. He prudently kept himself from pointing out that Trowa probably did not consider dinner with his sister a precursor for sex. "Why don't we just accuse those two of sleeping with each other again and leave it at that?"

"I hope that was joke," Duo said angrily. "We are not giving up that easily."

"Who said anything about giving up," Wufei said. "It's just that there's got to be a way of not blowing this out of proportion."

"Because you are so secure with Heero," Duo sneered. "Come on, 'Fei, admit it. He'd never leave you. Maybe you could start a threesome with him and Trowa."

"Duo," Quatre said shocked. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing," Duo said. "I'm merely stating the facts."

"No," said Quatre reasonably. "You are exaggerating. This is what you'll do. You talk it out with Heero, give him some time and see if he and Trowa are …"

"Oh, no," Duo said quickly. "You didn't come here so you could offer us sympathy…you came to see us so we can reassure you that Trowa was safe from Heero. You want Trowa for yourself don't you…"

"I don't know," Quatre said softly.

"Make up your mind, Winner," Wufei snapped. "If you saw him walking hand in hand with someone else on the road, for example Heero…" though how that would transpire was a mystery since neither Heero nor Trowa was the hand-holding type... "…would you go over and wish them luck?"

"Since it's Heero and Trowa, when you come across them having sex on the office table, will you wish them luck?" Duo supplied.

"Duo," Wufei said wearily. Duo's description was more apt but he did not want to bring that up. "You are not helping."

"Well, at least if we shower him with affection, he'll stay around for a while," Duo pointed out.

"That'll have to be after he comes back from the mission," Quatre said, looking at his palm top. "He's leaving tomorrow mid-day."

"We could ask him not to go," Wufei said.

"We could also ask him how sex with Trowa is like," Duo said.

"We could ask Sally to change the assignment so it's someone else paired with Trowa," Quatre said practically. "I don't think she has even seen this. This came directly from Lady Une's office."

"And tell them why we want a change in assignment?" Duo snarled. "Hell no. This is our problem so we solve it ourselves. We'll change that assignment."

[1 Well, we call it that here at my uni

[2 My last Nuclear physics lecture was four and a half years ago, so don't shoot me for the mistakes. http://en. I realized by dressing Zechs in red and black, I was following Spike's color scheme. [really? I thought he is so old, he only comes in black-and-white –the comment from Stray I leave as it is

[4 We do that here in my country


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

5.1: A little B & E

"I fail to see how you could ever justify such an action," Wufei grumbled.

"The correct word is _we_," Duo said kneeling by the lock. "We are doing this."

"The correct word for breaking into Lady Une's office is insanity," Wufei grumbled as he let Duo work on the complex lock.

"At least it's not card key or finger print or retinal scan," Duo said concentrating on the business at hand.

"Well," Wufei said thoughtfully. "If someone managed to get this far inside Headquarters undetected, none of those things might matter."

"Or this is just a decoy office and the real one is elsewhere," Duo supplied. Wufei looked up sharply. That had not occurred to him or to Quatre, who was the unwilling accomplice to the mad cap attempt.

"Really, you two," said Quatre, looking around nervously. "Can you two _not_ argue for a bit?"

"But what's wrong with it," Duo said looking up. "It's not like we're not supposed to be here. Act natural."

"I'm a lookout," Quatre said in a nervous whisper. "Breaking and entering isn't my specialty."

"Big help you are," Duo said. "Both of you are getting on my nerve. Wufei, you're blocking my light. Can't you go and stand elsewhere…"

"Like in the corridor," Wufei grumbled. "In full view of the night cleaning staff."

"Well, you are wearing a flowery blouse," Duo said cheekily. "Stand with your hands on your hips and look pretty."

"It's not my fault that they still don't have uniforms," Wufei said, blushing scarlet.

"But it's night," Quatre pointed out. "You didn't have to wear it. I know regulation calls for you to show up in uniform for work but really, someone would think you enjoy wearing that."

"I most certainly do not," Wufei said in a strangled voice.

"Hah," said Quatre quietly.

"Do you have something to add, Winner?" Wufei said in a dangerous tone.

"Empathy," Quatre said, snickering at Wufei.

"Meaning," Wufei said, glaring at Quatre. He took a threatening step forward.

"Get over it," Duo said with a grin, tossing his comment over his shoulder before turning his back to the other two, to continue working on the lock. "We both know you are too soft to do anything to Quatre. At least now…"

"He just implied I enjoy dressing this way," Wufei said in a low voice, struggling to control his volume.

"I did no such thing," Quatre said looking as innocent as you. "Did I Duo?"

"Don't you two gang up on me," Wufei growled.

"Got it," said Duo happily as he pulled on the lock and it slid open neatly. "Nice and easy."

"That's it?" Quatre asked looking relieved.

"No," said Duo. "There's a backup in the basement which is going to be a little tougher than this. Quatre, you work on this terminal here while I go to the basement and see if I can alter data there."

"What should the altered data say?" Quatre said resignedly when he realized that it was too late to back out. After all, he'd just broken into his superior officer's stronghold; it was far too late to back out.

"Same mission, only it's going to be Trowa and...um…one of us," Duo said thoughtfully.

"I can't believe we came this far before thinking up the details," Wufei groaned. "Send in Barton and Winner. They can settle their differences on the way or come back as …"

"Not going to work," Quatre said with a shake on his head. "This is supposed to be an undercover operation and the owner of Winner groups waltzing in to L4 in sunglasses is anything but undercover. Most people there know me, including my sisters and I'd don't think it'll be much of a secret mission with three reporters tagging along."

"Fine," said Duo with a shrug. "I'll go."

"I'll go," Wufei said instantly.

"You might want to stay," Duo said thoughtfully. "Remember, you were supposed to do a weekend shift."

Wufei scowled at the reminder. "Winner can do it," he said

"No," Duo said patiently. "Sally will think you are on some grand scheme to avoid her at all cost. Plus, if Quatre pulls in all the weekend shifts and the night shifts people will think he's lobbying for an administrative position."

"Thanks a lot," Quatre grumbled. "I just took this night shift to avoid Trowa…"

"That's great," Wufei grunted then looked aside with a grimace.

"You have something to tell me?" Quatre demanded a little angrily.

"Well," Wufei smirked at that. "I'm not the empath here."

"Meaning," Quatre said in a low voice.

"You are doing it all wrong," Wufei said a little smugly, leaning against the wall.

"Ok," said Duo turning around. "Why don't the two of you work on the terminal here while I go down to the basement and see if I can tap into that terminal? We just need to make sure our travel details and everything are in my name and not in someone else's."

"Don't we need a password to log into Une's computer?" Quatre asked as Duo looked at the two of them with a pleased expression.

"Here," Duo produced a rewritable disk. "Put this in and boot the computer – make sure you boot it from the disk. Should get you past the security measures in no time. If that doesn't work…" he stepped forward and fixed a com-unit to Wufei's left ear, "…give me a call and I'll come running."

"Where'd you get this from?" Wufei asked, fingering his ear.

"I thought you'd be curious," Duo said with a grin. "We are all assigned a few hardware – it's in our rules and regulations book –which you never bothered to read. I see that Quatre is wearing his but all you seemed interested in was your flowery blouse."

"I…" Wufei spluttered.

"Yeah, yeah," Duo rolled his eyes. "You aren't a sticker to rules anyway. But you remember, when in a field mission, you have to call in every four hours and all this is long range with a limited frequency and you'd better read up on that before we go on our first mission."

"You and Trowa, you mean," Quatre said a little dejectedly. He wouldn't have really minded a mission with Trowa which sounded like a honeymoon getaway. "You'll have people here monitoring your mission."

"No," Dou said firmly. "I'm going to be communicating with you people while on the field 'cause I don't think I want to report back to Sally or Noin who'll get too suspicious about this." Duo did not have to say out loud that having one of the Gundam pilots as backup was more reassuring. They were more reliable than the regular PK field operative observation staff, many of whom had never been on the field.

"Can we get this over with," Quatre grumbled. "I'm getting nervous from all this talking. We are doing something illegal after all."

"Fine," Duo rolled his eyes. "Whatever." He reached forward, adjusted Wufei's collar and kissed him on the nose before walking down the corridor with his braid swinging left and right, his tools in hand.

"Let's get this over with," said Wufei as he stepped into the office followed by Quatre. He rubbing his nose and steadfastly ignoring Quatre's knowing look as he stepped inot the office, his cheeks blazing red.

Lady Une's office was Spartan; no paper on the desk, no files…nothing. There was a 3D-holo of Treize mounted on a side niche but it was a standard OZ issue, showing him in his military uniform, a mobile suit silhouetted above him. That was the only personal touch in an impersonal office and looking around made Wufei feel slightly depressed.

"Let's do this," said Quatre, stepping past Wufei and reaching the desk. He powered up the computer, slipped in the disk into the slot and looked up as Wufei walked up to one of the wall terminals.

"It's going to take a little time," Quatre said as the computer rebooted and codes started to run across the screen.

"We'll wait it out," Wufei said as he looked at it. "When does your night shift end?"

"Midnight," Quatre said with a shrug. "We've got time."

"So, this your way of avoiding Barton," Wufei said with a shrug. "Seems to me that I was wrong about you Winner."

"What do you mean?" Quatre asked, looking up from the computer screen, his face pale.

"I thought you had inner strength," Wufei said looking at the far wall. "When Duo was all out campaigning to try and get you and Barton together, I told him you were strong enough to face your own demons. You could stand up to anything and get what you want."

"But…" Quatre said, a little less confidently. "This is different."

"You are the most people-orientated of us," Wufei said. "You are the one who is the most compassionate …so what's Barton doing wrong?"

"I…" Quatre said, his cheeks burning red with embarrassment. "All he seems to want is sex."

At that Wufei snorted derisively and reached forward. Quatre flinched before he realized Wufei had reached for the keyboard to press a key. "He's seventeen, not seventy-one," Wufei said as the computer screen cleared to show a desktop with the PK logo in the background. "It would be strange if he didn't want it."

"That's big coming from you," Quatre said before he could help it. "You are the one who…"

"I am involved with two different people and trying to make it work," Wufei said with a scowl. He looked around for a pointer before seeming to realize that the screen was touch sensitive and proceeded to open the files.

"But…"

"What do you want Winner?" Wufei asked abruptly. "Where Barton is concerned."

"What do you mean?" Quatre asked as he continued to study the screen.

"Roses and wine and dinners and dances…" Wufei said absentmindedly as he worked on the files.

"I want him to like me for myself and not just see me as a sex object," Quatre said firmly, looking at the file names. "How about that one…flower festival."

"Looks like background information," Wufei said dismissively. "And Quatre, you are such a girl."

"Oh!" There was a pause. "Was that an insult?"

"You figure in out," Wufei said as he scrolled down. "You and I may be the only two people from the five of us who's ever had a normal family background. Trowa, Heero and Duo do not …did not have what you would call an ordinary childhood."

"Meaning?" Quatre said looking puzzled.

"I don't know," said Wufei looked straight at Quatre's blue eyes. "Just that …I don't know how to say this since I just figured it out myself" he looked away with a grimace. "…from the whole Duo and Heero issue…"

"Tell me," said Quatre, leaning against the table and crossing his arms.

"If you like someone…" there was pause as Quatre held his breath wondering if Wufei had finally had sudden shift in character"…you meet them half way."

"What!" Quatre asked.

"You know," there was a longer silence and the computer beeped but they both ignored it.

"No, I don't," Quatre said a little snidely. "Otherwise, would I be listening to advice from Chang Wufei on how to improve my love life?"

"You are right," Wufei said hastily. He reached for the computer. He scrolled down a little more, found the file, opened it and started to make the necessary alterations. "Forget I said it."

"I can't," Quatre said with a snarl. He grabbed, Wufei, turned him around and used his body to pin him to the desk. "You can't give me titbits of information then leave me wondering about it. Come on, 'Fei…what am I doing wrong with Trowa?"

"I don't like you that way," Wufei said with a shrug to ease the blond's hold on his blouse then groaned. "Hit me, I can't believe I said that. Must be Duo's influence."

"Is that what you meant when you said about meeting them half away?" Quatre asked seriously. "Like letting Duo change the way you think?'

"Did I tell you I hate pineapples on my pizza?" Wufei said thoughtfully as he extracted himself from Quatre's grip.

"But…" Quatre prompted him.

"I order it for Duo everyday," Wufei saved the file and closed it. "I even eat it."

"You mean I should put up with Trowa's …"

"That's not the right word, Winner," Wufei growled pushing his hands off the desk. "Putting up with something means you are some martyr suffering through a relationship. You need to be able make some changes of your own and not regret it."

"_Wow_." Came a stunned voice over the earpiece. "_Did you just say that?"_

"Duo," Wufei almost jumped out of his skin. "You were listening?"

"_Go on_," Duo urged from the basement. "_Say something Quatre_."

"I don't think he can hear you," Wufei said.

"Yes, I can," Quatre said touching his earpiece. "Duo's on an open frequency."

"_Well then, let me put this into a simple language for you_," Duo said with a flair. "_Quatre, you can't expect Trowa to change unless you change 'cause none of us is perfect_."

"Change," Quatre parroted.

"_You know_," Duo said. "_If you want him to act in a certain way, you tell him. None of us are telepaths here. You want him to act in some way you tell him and you tell him clearly. Trowa, Heero…those guys don't operate __by the same rule__s we do. You have to tell them word by word what you expect of them …and you can't expect them to treat you like …um…a girl and act in that way because you tell them to. It's their choice_."

"But…"

"_You've known Trowa for ages so you're over the get to know each other phase._" There was a small thump and a whoop. "_Just gave myself a first class flight out of here_. _Have_ _to add Trowa as well or it'd look funny…_"

"That's nice, Duo," Wufei said wryly. "Just get out of there. Our work is done."

"So maybe I should ease off," Quatre said in a small voice.

"_You should loosen up_," Duo said over the link. "_You know…make a couple of dirty jokes and not expect Trowa to treat you like some damsel in distress from that soft porn stuff for housewives."_

"Gah," said Wufei as he shut down the computer. "Quatre, you go ahead. I forgot to get the disk out."

"I'll wait," Quatre said, his face red. "And I don't act like a girl. I just wish…"

"You're a Gundam pilot for crying out loud, Winner," Wufei exploded. "You want a guy, you get him. You want him to act in a certain way, you tell him. You aren't some whinny kid with an attitude…."

"I…"

"_What he means is_," Duo said over the com-link. "_You can't act like a spoiled brat and expect us street trash to understand the intricacies of relationships_."

"I didn't mean…"

"_Me, Trowa…Heero, we didn't get home education and hugs and all, so don't expect people like us to live up to your standards of romance_," Duo's voice sounded bitter as he spoke.

"Am I getting a talking to here?" Quatre asked in a small voice.

"_Oh, yes you are_," Duo said. "_Ease up with Trowa and be his friend…not some stranger demanding perfection_."

"Well, I…" Quatre was starting to sound a little stunned.

"_Oops_," came Duo's voice and both Wufei and Quatre looked up sharply.

"Tell me you aren't busted," Wufei said.

"_I' m not busted_," Duo sounded pissed. "_I just came across a green haired punk who's asleep in the basement storage closet_."

"Sally finally got fed up with him and kicked him out," Wufei grunted.

"_Maybe…"_ Duo said thoughtfully. "_But I don't know…"_

"I'll come down and take a look," Quatre said decisively. "I'm supposed to be on night duty so I'll just call Sally if it looks like he's about to pull a disappearing act." He walked towards the basement lift and stopped to look over his shoulder at Wufei who was tapping away at the computer.

"Wufei."

"Go ahead, Winner," Wufei said half-aware of his surroundings. "I'll catch up with you soon."

"And …thank you…both of you…" Quatre said softly as he headed out. "But maybe some of what you said to me should be applied to Heero as well. Duo!" he called in a more authoritative voice. "Get out of there. You'd better be gone by the time I show up so I can think of a suitable excuse for Sally."

5.2: A Damsel in Distress 

Wufei had been about to power down Lady Une's computer when he spotted the small folder marked with a series of question marks. By nature, he did not pry but he was teenager with a teenager's sense of curiosity. He double clicked the file to open, promising himself that he'd close it the moment he got a glimpse of what it was about.

It was probably something totally useless like Lady Une's porn collection[1 or her security camera recordings of Zechs undressing. Wufei looked at the file inside in confusion; it was some sort of long, detailed document on some of the trainees – arranged by name.

There was a Zack Claudius – Wufei touched it open. Hmmm, the guy was some sort of reformed drug abuser and in need of further observation. Great, now they had dope addicts as fellow work mates- he wondered what Heero would say to that. And near the end was the name that had been plaguing him for a while Yao 'Jasmine' Fei Yen.

Without a second thought Wufei opened the file; he knew it –she was some sort of psychotic stalker or a mentally unstable …there was her birthday –she was older than him by three months…and…oh!!!

The file was longer than he'd expected it to be and more detailed.

The Yao family had been among the last ones to leave the colony before the attack -- in escape pods that had been as old and outdated as the colony itself – as much a death trap as a life line.

The OZ troops had been aware of bands of colonists abandoning L5 but they were not leaving fast enough and the officer in charge of the 'pest cleaning operation' had been a tad too eager to complete his assignment.

The family had barely escaped the mobile suits and the pursuing fighters, loosing one of the escape pods to space missiles. In it had been two other families, Jasmine's mother, her younger bother of two, a family servant and a pet canary[2 (at least it wasn't a cricket, they were supposed to bring you luck)– as well as all their belongings.

When they had been picked up by the battleship, the remaining escape pods had been drifting in space for over ten days, running low on air, shield generators failing – two of the elderly had died of exposure and there'd been no way of disposing the bodies since there had been no way to open the airlock. Then the file went on to list the places they had been to home– in a refugee colony not far from L2 and from there they had left to Earth. Amazingly, the remaining family members had managed to stay together – Jasmine, her father, three elder brothers, a grandmother and a crippled aunt.

The entire family lived in a large house, not far from the Headquarters in an area of the town dubbed 'China town' for obvious reasons. The Yao family ran a number of businesses from dabbling in the stock market to a small Feng Shui shop just next to the family house.

The entire family was politically active –trying to bring down the OZ regime that had obliterated their colony – though the file was far too politically correct to say that. Two of the brothers had been arrested several times, the youngest being some sort of petty thug who was prone to throwing rocks and breaking into buildings claiming they were OZ supporters' homes, and the second some sort of public speaker, who made derogatory speeches about the OZ regime in supermarkets and subway stations. The oldest son did not have the time to collect an arrest record, since he ran the family business along with his ailing father. The middle son, the file read, needed to be watched carefully, since he was the most intelligent of the lot, trying to use political maneuvering to win back at least some of what they had lost when the colony had exploded. He had also managed to gather a large number of people with connections to the former L5, who were willing to work with him.

The sister, Jasmine was the one who had been ignored from the beginning. She was a female in a male dominated household (only the grandmother remained, since her aunt had passed away shortly after they had arrived on Earth), with a higher than average intelligence but no motivation to use it. Jasmine's political views were neutral and she had expressed no ulterior motivation when she had joined the PKs. The physiological evaluation had termed her normal, whatever that was. (None of the Gundam pilots had undergone physiological evaluation for obvious reasons.) She had simply expressed a desire to build a niche for herself away from the influence of her family.

'_Not true_,' Wufei thought. The file was obviously wrong. Jasmine had tried to make him come and meet her family. There was a strong bond between her and the family, which everyone was too blind to notice. He wondered just how wrong the file was about other aspects of that family. Perhaps with Jasmine a PK, Lady Une probably thought she could force the Yao family to behave itself.

And there was a medical file attached to the end…

It was full of medical gibberish, most of which Wufei could not understand. He made a mental note to himself to sign up for a couple of pre-med courses for the next semester, then read it over twice to make sure he understood it - not that it needed special clarification.

When people first started going to space in badly shielded ships, they had died like flies on electrified fence. The deep space radiation killed as many as 75 of the first spacers – the mutations it produced in the second generation were unspeakable. Prevention was found in the form of shielding and protective clothing but a cure for space radiation sickness was yet to be discovered The mutations it produced were far too varied and in some cases, unrecognizable to be treated properly. It affected different people in different ways.

When shielding in the escape pod Jasmine had left L5 in had failed, everyone in it had been exposed to a large dose of space radiation despite the best efforts of the adults inside. The children had been dressed in space suits and wrapped in protective radiation coverings – which had saved them from the worst of it. Many of the adults exposed to the radiation had died in the first year -- Jasmine's father suffered from a form of bone cancer which was eating him from the inside. He was not expected to last the year The older brother was sterile – the second and third however appeared to be amazingly healthy, showing no ill effects of having been exposed. Jasmine on the other hand was sick.

She was sterile – no hope of children but it was not the worst. Most people lived their entire lives without reproducing. Her body was simply shutting down. What was wrong with Jasmine was not something modern medicine could cure – it was not a disease or a sickness. She was simply dying faster than a normal human would. Sally had predicted that Jasmine would live past the age of twenty. Maybe up to twenty five – with proper care, medication and life support. But the bottom line was Jasmine Yao was dying of space radiation sickness –slowly but steadily and there was no way of stopping it.

Wufei remembered to disk this time before stumbling out, his head full of information. He had an apology to make to a female he had dismissed as a frivolous idiot.

5.3: Phobia experts

Trowa tried to ignore Duo who was fidgeting next to him, chatting up a beautiful Space Shuttle attendant. He leaned back against the headrest, closed his eyes and tried hard not to think about how nauseated he was feeling.

"Uh, Tro," Duo spoke to him. "How about something to eat? Helen just said she'd give us a complimentary …"

"No," Trowa snapped before the sentence was over.

"You ok?" Duo inquired, ignoring the hovering attendant to concentrate of Trowa instead. "You look kinda pale…sure you don't want a drink."

"No." Trowa gripped the armrest as the engine started the warming up sequence. First class (who knew the PK budget office were this generous) was more comfortable than a normal space shuttle and the padding cut down the noise but he was a pilot and he knew what the faint trembling under his feet meant – the engine was heating up. He swallowed hard and tried to relax his fingers…

"Does your chest hurt?" Duo inquired. "You look awfully pale."

"I'm fine," Trowa ground out.

"Wow, that's abrupt, even for a person of few words," Duo said cheerfully. "Lighten up man, this is going to be great."

Trowa wondered if it was worth the bother to uncurl his fingers to strangle his partner. He might even be able to pass if off as an accident once he'd returned. No wonder Duo had two lovers –just one person could not put up with that.

"Tro." There was a worried tone. "Breath…you're turning blue."

"I'm …" The shuttle started down the runway and Trowa clapped his mouth shut, almost biting off his tongue.

"Excuse me," said Duo told the girl hovering close by and turned fully towards Trowa. "What is it? Do you want me to stop the shuttle?"

"No," Trowa said again, this time to stop the tirade. He was grateful in a way that it was Duo who was witness to his weakness, not anyone else. He knew that despite his seemingly loose tongue, Duo could be trusted with a secret. "

"Care to explain to me what this is about?" Duo asked. "You mad at me for partnering with you? I know Heero or Quatre could have…."

"I'm…" Trowa struggled. "…not very fond of shuttles." He finally admitted.

"Shuttles as in space shuttles?"

"No," Trowa almost shouted. "Shuttles as in what you play badminton with." Several people turned towards him and he tried to sink back even more into the well-padded seat. Duo did not even blink at the outburst, looking more worried than anything else.

"But you're a Gundam pilot," Duo said making him grit his teeth. "You pilot stuff in space. So how can you…is this a control issue? You don't like other people in charge… Is this that you feel so helpless if you're not in the cockpit…?"

Trowa opened his eyes and looked at Duo, puzzled. "Where did you get that idea from?" Him, a control freak.

"Uh…" Duo blushed. "I read up on it a bit."

"Whatever for?" Trowa asked, sitting up, curious now.

"You know…physiological stuff," Duo looked even more embarrassed. "Everyone needs a hobby. So…what's with you and space shuttles."

"I just don't like open space much…" Trowa finally admitted. "You know, after…Quatre shot me into space, I sort of drifted around a bit." It was an understatement. It had felt as if he was floating around for eternity, with the silence of space all around him. There was no gravity so he didn't know what was up or down, unable to control his suit's rotation, the sound of his breathing echoed in his ears and his helmet seemed to contract around him.

"I know," Duo said thoughtfully. "We came to get you from the circus remember."

"And as long as I'm in space, I'm fine," Trowa said in a small voice. "But after that incident, take offs and landings sort of …" he searched for the correct word. "…freak me out."

"Oh," Duo said in a small voice. "I sort of know what you mean."

Trowa did not reply but leaned back again as the shuttle completed take off. Talking to Duo, he realized, had helped elevate some of his fears. "I don't know whether to be annoyed or not over the whole thing," he said. "I'm fine most of the time and then…like today…it was totally unexpected. I thought I was over it and then I almost get a panic attack."

"I shouldn't be telling you this," Duo said leaning back into his seat. "But I guess since you are the only person who doesn't know…well…I have this sort of problem, too, you know?"

Trowa waited patiently to see if he'd be told the rest of it. When nothing was forthcoming, he looked at Duo and asked as gently as possible. "Is this like a panic attack?"

"Um…" Duo squirmed a little then pulled down their privacy screen. At the start of the flight, the only people who pulled down the privacy screen were those who wanted to sleep, screw or breast feed kids… but Trowa did not think they were going to be doing any of those things. "It's a sexual nature." Duo blurted out.

Trowa had a sudden flashback to a panic syndrome he'd read about called penis panic, which was common in Africa and Asia where the people afflicted lived in fear that their sexual organs would shrink away to nothing.[3

"What…" Duo said drawing back as if stung and Trowa realized he was smiling. "You think I'm making it up."

"Duo!"

"Well, I'm not," Duo said clearly hurt.

"I just remembered something else," Trowa said. "You aren't panicking about losing your penis are you?"

"Uh---NO," Duo shouted. "I…I…I was raped when I was a kid, all right."

After making that stunning statement, Duo leaned back against the seat and took a deep breath. "It's like…I don't mind it when I top…you know…I topped with Wufei…" somehow Trowa never imagined Wufei as a bottom and he was already getting far too much information. "…but I paniced when he tried to do it to me and…well with the three of us…you know…Heero, 'Fei and me…" Trowa was about to get his first ever nosebleed. "…I sorta panicked. I think it's 'cause, well…they outnumber me two to one…" Trowa was hoping this was not an invitation to group sex "…but then Heero did this finger thing…" Trowa did not want to know what, Heero was his friend "…and I was fine but I think I was fine 'cause they stopped and if they had gone all the way I would have panicked. And then yesterday Wufei got angry and …" about what Trowa wondered, not that Wufei needed a reason to get angry "…you know he lifted his hand and I panicked. I thought he'd try something with me and…"

Duo took a deep breath.

"I don't get it," he said plaintively. "I know neither Heero nor Wufei mean me any harm and _I want to bottom_…" Again, way too much information "…but I can't do it. And I think Heero and Wufei will eventually get fed up with me and move on…you know just the two of them."

"With each other?" Trowa asked in surprise. He had no idea that Duo had this kind of insecurities.

"Can't you see how they'd get fed up with me finally and kick me out?" Duo said miserably. "You knew Heero well for a time – and he …doesn't like whiners, right? And do you see Wufei enduring my weakness?"

"That's stupid," Trowa said firmly. "I think they both l…like you…a lot. Otherwise… why would they put up with you?"

"That's a stupid thing to say," Duo said, looking for a moment as if he was about to cry.

Trowa groped around for something to say. "You'll be fine," he said finally. "You'll see."

"But how do you get over it?" Duo asked, almost wailing.

"You see it though," Trowa said finally. "I've seen people at the circus who lost their nerve after taking a fall. There was a high-wire artist who fell – into a safety net –who refused get up on anything higher than a stool after that. But another guy, fell off a horse, broke his leg but was back doing back flips on the same horse the following month. It's how you react to these events."

"How do I get back on the horse?" Duo asked.

"You have to trust Heero and Wufei," Trowa replied promptly, the reply already in his mind. "They'd never let you fall, they'd never hurt you or do anything you don't want."

"I guess that's true," Duo said thoughtfully.

"Have a little more trust and know they're yours," Trowa said with a smile. "It takes time and sometimes you never get over it but…Duo…sex is something beautiful. Don't let anyone else take it away from you."

Duo looked at Trowa with his mouth open.

"Don't let some pervert rob you of the best thing that's happened to you," Trowa said firmly.

"Does Quatre even know you think like that…about sex?" Duo asked, looking slightly stunned. Trowa shrugged – that had no been a conversation topic between him and the blond. "Who knew you had such depths? But from what Quatre told me, it seemed as though you were…"

"I was what…?" Trowa prompted

"You know," Duo blushed. "As if all you wanted to do was screw him."

"What's wrong with that?" Trowa asked puzzled. "My life's best experiences have been with people I care about – having sex – or making love…"he shrugged. "It's personal and anyway. I'm not good with words. I'm better expressing how much I feel for them that way. And with each person, it's unique…special…"

"Maybe you should tell Quatre that," Duo said thoughtfully. "I think we all see sex differently."

That statement gave Trowa something to think about while Duo drooled against his shoulder. He was thinking so hard, he forgot to panic when the Shuttle landed.

[1 does she like 'mutant love' and 'tentacle rape' or is that just the doujinshi?- Stray made me wonder. This is not Wufei's thought. He's too sweet :)

[2 birds are more sensitive to air pressure changes and stuff so at least according to Arthur C. Clerk you should keep a bird with you to measure CO2 concentration

[3 It's true…check out Wikipedia if you don't believe me. From Stray - and do look up Vagina Dentata

a/N – part of what Trowa tells Duo near the end is from a speech I got off the net for rape victims. It was done by a woman for women but I thought I was all right to use it here. I've lost the reference, but will try to find it if someone wants it. I know Jasmine's sob story is too long but I just couldn't edit it coz I'm running out of time. Don't kill me over this ppl


	6. Chapter 6

A/N – To Ichia who wanted more of Trowa's past. It's going to be there in the next Chapter. To Crystal who wanted more 1 and 5 interaction. I will accommodate requests if they are reasonable. Let me apologies for the delay. I am working on a 1x5 called Dance which I was busy with the past few weeks. And my personal life has also been a little hectic. Here's to hoping for regular updates from now on :)

Chapter 6

6.1: Visit to China Town.

Heero remained silent as Wufei discarded his uniform in preference to in his white suit and slipped on shoes. When he picked up his sword and looked at it contemplatively, Heero rolled his eyes and walked up to his lover. "Where are you going?"

"To…" Wufei looked as if he was debating with himself whether to lie or not, but in the end seemed to take a deep breath and answered. "Remember that girl who was the reason we got kicked out of the Physics lecture …"

At least Wufei wasn't blaming him for that incident anymore. "Yao," Heero confirmed

"I'm going to meet her family," Wufei said with a grimace.

"Why?" Heero demanded. "You turned her down before…rather violently."

"They are from L5," Wufei said looking down at the sword he held with both hands. "And no matter how much I try to avoid it, it is my duty to meet them at least once." Wufei did not sound as if he wanted to meet them, he sounded resigned as if he had no choice. Was he being blackmailed into it?

"I'll come with you," Heero said.

There was a moment's consideration and then Wufei nodded. "Just…I think you'll have to change into something other than your shorts. We might run into her grandmother and who knows what she's like."[1

Being with Duo had taught him some sense of humor for which Heero was grateful. "I didn't think my legs were that bad," he said dryly and watched some of the tension bleed out of Wufei and the firmly pressed-together lips turn upwards in a faint smile.

They took the bus to the town limits then opted to walk the rest of the way. It was obvious that though Chinatown was made up of mainly Chinese (looking) residents, it had adjusted to the changing times. Nearly all the people there wore normal clothing – that is not what Wufei wore -- and even the shops had Standardized names. The people were also of different nationalities and the children seemed a mixed sort.

"Not exactly what I expected," Heero said, looking around critically. "I'd have thought the people would look more …Chinese."

"This is just the outer fringes," Wufei replied consulting the map on his palm top navigator. "We have to go on a bit and I believe the inner town is more…traditional."

"So the people here belong to two worlds," Heero said observing a child with straight black hair but obvious European features walk hand in hand with her mother who was as blond as Quatre.

"I suppose," Wufei said with a shrug, apparently not giving it much thought. "So… uh…what did …how did dinner with Trowa and you … go?"

Heero did not see why Wufei had to stammer though the question. "Nothing," he said with a shrug, blushing slightly at the memory.

"You're red," Wufei observed.

"Cathy kept on reminding me that she treated me when I was sick and she's seen me naked," Heero answered tersely. It was not something he wanted remember. "And she's better at throwing knives than at cooking."

"Oh." Wufei looked away, a faintly guilty look appearing fleetingly over his face.

Heero wondered if he had made a mistake by trying to treat the subject casually. Did Wufei want to meet Cathy as well? "Is…" _Duo avoiding me?_ "…there anything wrong with Duo?" He had wanted to confront Duo about it but by the time he'd come back from dinner, Duo had been asleep and in the morning had departed for a briefing before the assignment. With Wufei busy with the weekend shift, he had been stuck at home doing the laundry (including one green stuffed frog) and mulling over their relationship.

"He got a warning for missing too many classes," Wufei replied, squinting at a road sign in the failing light. The roads were more brightly decorated and the Chinese characters on the shop fronts declared they were entering the inner city.

"Don't they have make up classes during the weekend?" Heero asked as he looked up at one of the shops, which offered fresh fruits and multimedia accessories.

"They do?" Wufei looked startled. "If I'd known, I'd not have let him take the weekend mission."

"He probably didn't tell you because of that," Heero said. "What exactly are you looking for?" He was starting to feel slightly curious about Wufei's odd behavior. "Again…why are you going to see her? It can't be because you're in need of some racial bonding."

"A Feng Shui shop," Wufei replied, looking slightly nervous and totally avoiding the question. "Er---their house is close to the shop."

"Is it worth the trouble to meet someone who's…" Heero started to ask but stopped as Wufei veered off after a long haired female dressed in a yellow sundress.

"Jasmine," Wufei called as he walked after the female. Heero frowned. From the back, one female looked just like the other to him and it was so damn annoying. How did Wufei know he was calling out to the correct girl? As Heero watched, the girl turned around, startled and then grimaced, as if she was not at all pleased to see him.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"I came to apologize," Wufei said directly. "I was mistaken about you." There was a longer silence. "I saw your file." Heero watched the girl's cheeks turn red and he looked away, puzzled and slightly hurt. Wufei was holding back something from him, the same way Duo had been.

She seemed to study his face for a while, her eyes searching for something elusive before looking at Heero abruptly, scowling. "I don't need your pity," she said clearly.

"It's not…" Wufei started to say, looked at Heero then stopped, making Heero feel like a third wheel on a date. "I do not …I'm the only person who knows."

"I should not be condemning you as if you did something wrong," Jasmine said, retreating. "Even if you came because you feel sorry for me, I suppose you'd better come meet the family. Only grandma and my second brother are home. They'd be…" she hesitated as if wondering what to say. Heero hoped she would not say '_honored to meet you'_ because that would obviously be a lie. "…interested in meeting you."

Wufei seemed to hesitate then nodded, looking thoughtful. "Of course," he said, though the look he directed at Heero said otherwise.

----!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!----

Jasmine's grandmother was one of those old women who had not only aged gracefully but also seemed to have all her senses in proper working order. She was also the most unpleasant woman Heero had ever met.

"It's my pleasure to have the Consort of Long Meiran and a Japanese half-breed in my house," she said in perfect English with a British accent, taking them both in. Her message was as clear as the contempt written on her face as she sat above them in a high chair. "You are called Wu Fei, weren't you?" she added taking in Wufei in a single glance as he sat silently. "You must be about by Fei Yen's age…fifteen."

"Yes," Wufei answered softly, his eyes firmly fixed on the floor. From the way his clasped hands were trembling, it was obvious he did not care much for the woman and Heero wondered what sort of hold she had on Wufei to make him behave this way.

"Hm," she said thoughtfully, almost as if disappointed by his (lack of) response. Next to her, seated on the floor, Jasmine squirmed as if uncomfortable by the way her grandmother was treating the guests but did not speak up. In a lightning-quick move which belied her age, the old woman thrust her walking stick under Wufei's chin and jerked it up, sharply. "You look younger," she observed. "You still haven't lost the baby fat in your face." Wufei flushed but held his position without a flinch. Heero wondered why his lover was putting up with such a treatment but did not speak up – it was Wufei's place to react, not his. But he clenched his fists tightly to control his emotions, a move which did not escape the notice of Heero. Heero debated whether he should say that baby fat made Wufei look rather cute then decided to save the comment for a more private occasion.

"You are?" the old woman directed her gaze towards Heero as if he was an insect which needed to be stepped on.

"Heero Yuy," Heero said firmly. "I'm…Wufei's friend."

"Then your mother must have been the…Gaijin[2," she said clearly. Her insult was even clearer. The word she had used was the Japanese word for foreigner but it also meant stranger. Heero knew that Japanese did not tolerate [3 outsiders readily and to them, a child born of a foreigner was not one of them. Even now the country was not as open to outsiders as most countries were. Next to him, Wufei stiffened, making as if to stand up. Apparently, he was willing to put up with insults to himself but not his partner, which was a relief. Heero put out a hand to stop Wufei, intending to clasp his elbow but missed and instead, his hand landed on Wufei's upper thigh.

The silence which followed was as devastating as a nuclear explosion. The room seemed to still as the old woman's eyes zoomed in on the point of contact and even Heero felt uncomfortable. The walking stick rose up again and thumped Heero on his head _hard_ and he blinked - slowly to show her it didn't hurt. She didn't know anything about the amount of torture he was able to endure. As the situation was about to get out of control, another person joined them.

Heero knew immediately he was Jasmine's brother. They had the same facial features though the new comer's face was leaner, harder, like that of someone who had undergone many hardships. He was tall – about as tall as Zechs -- and slender. His body reflected the strength and control obtained at a cost and when he spoke, his voice was low and controlled.

"Grandmother," he said with a bow to the old lady. "I see you have visitors. I'm sorry to intrude." Again the precisely controlled sentences, and the British accent which was disturbing since Heero almost expected the newcomer to speak with a heavy accent.

"It's perfectly all right," the old lady said and Heero knew it was all too rehearsed. Jasmine's brother had known they were there; something about his posture, almost like that of an actor repeating his lines, gave it away. "This is Meiran Long's consort, Chang Wufei." Again, Wufei did not stir but Heero gritted his teeth at the form of address.

"I'm Frank," Jasmine's brother introduced himself. "I was training some of the young ones our art of self defense. I just thought of something." The tilt of the head and the tone made it very unconvincing. "You'd like to accompany me."

"Of course." Wufei uncurled his legs and stood up smoothly and Heero followed just as quickly. He did not like these people and there was no need for Wufei to put up with this sort of heavy-handed tactics. As Wufei was about to follow Frank, Heero grabbed him by the upper arm, the audience be damned.

"I have no idea what these people have over you," he said intently in a low voice. "But Frank didn't invite you to tea, he's going to fight with you."

"I know," Wufei said without looking at Heero.

"Don't let him beat you," Heero ordered. Short of fighting instead of Wufei, it was all he could do. "Don't hold back for the sake of the other person."

Wufei nodded his eyes fixed on the door through which Frank had disappeared then followed him. Heero did not even wait to see if the invitation included him or not – he walked beside Wufei, shoulder to shoulder.

The doorway led to a training area, rectangular in shape, white sand covered and lined with training weapons. There was no sign of the youth Frank was supposed to have been teaching and Heero was not surprised. Frank was standing in the middle, arms at his sides, looking relaxed. Wufei paused to hand over his PK com-link and ID to Heero before stepping into the sandy area. There was no verbal exchange – it was not necessary.

There was the sound of bare feet on behind them and Jasmine emerged, looking slightly flushed. She tried to brush past Heero into the cleared area but Heero simply held out an arm, blocking her way.

"You don't understand," Jasmine said a little desperately. "Frank is very good at this. He's been training his entire life."

"So has Wufei," Heero said without looking at the girl who was pushing at his arm uselessly. "You started this, so you'd better stay out of it."

"I didn't think it'd come to this," Jasmine said desperately. "When I met him at the Headquarters I thought it'd be a good idea to invite him to our home. Everyone speaks of him after seeing him on the World News and I thought that if I brought him home…they'd finally notice me. It's always been like this," she said angrily. "They always treat me like a kid and don't notice anything about me. Everything I do is wrong in their eyes."

"Perhaps you should live your own life instead of trying to live up to…" Heero started to recite the age old line, which even he did not believe in since he lived a life where orders from someone else controlled his actions, when he realized the confrontation between Wufei and Frank had already begun.

Frank seemed to be everything Wufei was and more. His longer arms and legs gave him a better reach and like Wufei, he knew how to fight. The blur of arms and feet, along with the dust from the finely powdered sand made it difficult to follow the movements properly but it looked as if Frank was winning. A particularly powerful kick caught Wufei on the side of his head, making him roll over his side and fall into the sand and skid back several feet, leaving a furrow along the sand. Even as Wufei struggled to his feet Frank kicked him again on the side, under his right arm, making him spin in the sand again.

For a moment, Heero almost jumped into the sand pit, rules of single combat be damned, but then Wufei looked at him squarely in the eye and he stopped. Before, there had been something missing in his fighting stance and now it was back. Wufei was angry, angry enough to put some heart in the fight, which until then had been one-sided. He flipped to his feet with surprising speed and stood, a faint smile on his lips. However, it was obvious he was favoring his injured ribs – something even a child would have realized.

They circled each other, Wufei keeping his injured side out of reach, his reactions slightly sluggish. Heero stilled and Jasmine stopped trying to push past him. They watched as Frank, seeing the opening he needed for the killing blow, surged forward confidently. Even as he did, Wufei moved sideways, did a back-flip and then kicked out in mid air.

Heero could see the surprised 'o' of Frank's mouth as his weakened opponent seemed to come back to life, fighting him, regaining ground. Wufei's moves, Heero saw with a faint smile of approval, were different from what he had used in the beginning. Sparing with people with other talents seemed to have helped him learn new tactics. They all had different fighting techniques, from Duo's cunning to Trowa's flexibility, and it seemed as if Wufei had picked up a few of those points on the way. While Wufei was not exactly wining, he was giving Frank something to fight against. The taller man was actually starting look tired and the smug look was fading into one of intense concentration. Even that did not save the taller boy from being thrown across the ground in an unexpected move.

Wufei looked as if he was going to wait for Frank to regain his feet, though Heero found it hard to decide whether due to fair play or as an excuse to ease his injured ribs,

. At that moment, their coms chirped. Wufei froze, looking at Heero as if for confirmation at the tone

"It's Quatre," Heero said shortly. "And he's calling us on both our coms." Which meant only one thing.

"We'll finish this later," Wufei told Frank who was on his feet but for the time being simply standing, watching their interaction with interest. "I have work to do."

Heero turned around to head back to the main room to retrieve their shoes when he saw Frank approach Wufei silently. He was too far off to hear the conversation but he could see the lips move.

"_You are better than I expected_," Frank said to Wufei who acknowledged the praise without blinking, face blank. "_We are having little get together…I'll let my sister know when_," Frank continued. "_Next time, come alone_."

By some unspoken agreement, they did not answer their coms until they were well out of the hearing range of the Yaos. When he was sure they were not being followed, Heero pulled out his com and switched it to voice mode. "What is it, Quatre?" he asked.

"Trowa and Duo are in trouble," Qutre's voice sounded tense. "I'll meet the both of you back at the headquarters."

"We'll be there," Heero answered as Wufei veered to the side, his right arm pressed firmly to his ribs while his left arm held it in place. "On second thought, why don't you pick us up in your car from Sector 9? I'll send you the co-ordinates for the pick up point."

6.2: The More the Merrier

Quatre had just finished making reservations for dinner at his favorite restaurant when his com beeped. He was glad that Duo remembered to call in regularly and that Trowa was off planet with his long-haired friend for a while. It helped Quatre to think about his situation more clearly, without being distracted with the sight of green eyes around the next corner. Distancing himself always helped him to look at the full picture and come to a logical conclusion.

While he had been rather disappointed by the way Trowa had treated him, he had also come to realize that he was going about it the wrong way. What Wufei and Duo had told him the previous night had helped him come to a few startling conclusions.

One, he did not want to lose Trowa to anyone. He did not want to see Trowa with anyone else, he wanted Trowa to himself. He knew Trowa liked him as well, so it was not too much of a subject to angst over. And secondly, while Trowa was taller than him and could overpower him in hand-to-hand combat, this did not mean he was going to be the _girl_ in the relationship.

He wondered how he had come to that conclusion; it certainly was not something he had been told and Trowa had come to acknowledge him as a strong person, even if that strength wasn't physical.

From what he had been told, he knew Trowa, just like Heero, did not conform to the norms of behavior in certain situations. That did not mean that he was going to let Trowa dictate every move they make. While he was not going to show up at Trowa's apartment with a packet of condoms and an extra large tube of lube (and risk being mistaken for Heero), he was going to make some changes in his outlook. For starters he was going to behave towards Trowa the way he wished Trowa would behave towards him.

On that note, he had planned a date. Something nice and quiet -- not too expensive or posh since that would make them both uncomfortable -- and definitely without a sister to supervise. Slightly distracted by the thought of a date, Quatre strolled along the corridor instead of striding briskly as he would have – and was able to hear Shaun before he ran into the green-haired punk.

"You!" said Shaun, voice laced with contempt as he eyed the blond.

"I'm aware of who I am," Quatre said calmly. The night before, discovering Shaun sleeping in the broom closet had not brought them any closer. In fact, being seen during his moment of weakness had only made things between them worse.

"I believe that Catalonia woman is looking for you in the records department," Shaun said with an evil grin. Translated, it meant that Dorothy had come looking for Quatre and Shaun had redirected her to the basement of the building, something that was hardly likely to put the blonde girl in a good mood. However, it had just made Quatre's day easier – he was, after all, not interested in the woman.

"Thanks," Quatre said casually, moving to sidestep the other boy.

"Think you're so important, don't you?" Shaun said as he moved to intercept, irked that his plan had gone awry. "Think you can just walk in and do anything you want?"

"I think you had a little too much office coffee," Quatre said rolling his eyes. "Is there something you want to tell me or are you just hinting at things in general?"

"I know what you've done…" Shaun started to say but at that moment Quatre felt his world close in.

Everything around him grew distant, as if he had been transported to the bottom of a well. Shaun's voice echoed strangely in his ears and the walls around him seemed to dissolve. His heart was pumping like crazy and he wondered if his life as a Gundam pilot had strained his body so much, he was going to keel over from a heart attack at his age. Then he realized what was wrong, even as he sank to his knees in the middle of the corridor, unmindful of the audience.

"Trowa," he gasped out as icy fingers gripped his body. Trowa was in trouble and he could feel it to his bones.

"I don't know what your overacting is going to get you," Shaun snarled. Quatre was so tuned to his sixth sense he could feel the fear behind Shaun's anger. The younger boy did not know whether Quatre was bluffing or not. If Quatre were bluffing and Shaun overreacted, then he would lose face, but, if there was something seriously wrong with the other boy and he ignored it, he would pay for it big time. However, Quatre was more concerned about Trowa than about Shaun's feelings as he stood up, brushing aside the annoying boy so he could reach the wall-com which would let him connect to any Peace Keeper he wanted directly.

He did not even hesitate as he called up both Heero and Wufei on PK frequency. It was an emergency and he needed people who would believe him and had as much to lose as he did. Heero answered on the second ring and was as abrupt and prompt in his answers as ever. It was reassuring in a way.

Had Heero questioned him, double checked his doubts and cross-examined his feelings, Quatre would have started doubting himself, but Heero's calm acceptance of his message was relief.

---!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1---

"What's he doing here?" Wufei demanded as he got into the back seat, wincing as he sat down.

"What did you do, join the Abused Spouse Society?" Shaun snapped from the front. "I think it's called ASS for short." It was hard to miss the fact Wufei looked as if he had taken a severe beating -- his face was bruised and he walked with a limp.His white clothes were torn and dusty, while his hair was a mess, no longer sleek and held back, but standing out like porcupine quills.

"He insisted on coming," Quatre said a little wryly. "It would have taken too much time to argue with him."

"Not to mention, he was acting all weird," Shaun said with a snarl, pointing towards Quatre with his thumb.

"We can knock him out and stuff him in a dumpster," Heero offered, sounding only half serious. Quatre decided that living with Wufei and Duo must have improved his outlook a bit.

"We'll never hear the end of it from Sally," Wufei said, leaning back, cradling his arm.

"Not to mention if you do something like that, I'll tell everyone you changed assigned personnel of a mission," Shaun shot back, looking over his shoulder at the back seat.

"Huh!" Heero said, sounding mystified and Quatre groaned mentally. It was not the best time to bring up such a topic.

"How did he know?" Wufei asked in a deadly quiet voice. "I take it you didn't tell him."

"I think he goes through Sally's stuff," Quatre said, concentrating on the road. "He must have seen the original assignment."

"Even better," Shaun boasted. "I have the original document in paper format."

"What's he talking about?" Heero demanded. "And why are we going to the Star Port and not back to HQ?"

"We'll tell you about it later," Wufei said, and Quatre peeked into the rearview mirror in time to see Wufei move his hand down Heero's side in a calming gesture – a non-sexual soothing. It made him feel slightly envious of the connection the two had.

"The reason we're going to the Star Port is because we need to get to L4 as soon as possible," Quatre answered.

"And the reason you can't get back up from Headquarters is because then everyone will know you screwed around with the security system," Shaun said with bravado.

"The reason we are not going to HQ is because there is only one there who can help us," Quatre said firmly. "I've already contacted Rashid and he said we can have their reserve transporter which is docked here."

"Who's going to pilot it?" Shaun snapped. "You? You need a license if you're going to take off from a civilian space port or military clearing."

"No, Heero is going to pilot it," Quatre said firmly. "I'll be navigating. Duo's our best pilot but we don't have him at the moment."

"I'm coming with you," Shaun said suddenly. "You don't even know where you're going."

"No, you're not coming,' Wufei snapped from the back. "We have enough problems without having to drag you along."

"What was he talking about?' Heero asked again.

"We'll drop him off as we enter the loading bay of the Star Port," Quatre said. He signaled a left turn and turned down sharply the side road leading to the City's only space port, clearing the first of the security barrier's by flashing his PK id.

"Oh, yes," Wufei nodded towards Shaun. "I forgot; he doesn't have clearance, does he? What's he going to do once he's inside?"

"I'm coming with you," Shaun repeated stubbornly. "I can be useful and anyway, I've never been off planet before.

"This isn't some pleasure trip," Wufei practically screamed from the back seat, making Quatre wince as his ears protested. "Quatre, stop. We're kicking him out now…" Wufei winced as the sudden movement to open the door seemed to make his injuries worse. Quatre, again wondered what had happened to Wufei to make him look as if he had taken a fall off the seventh floor of a high-rise building. He did not think Heero was responsible for it since there was no sign of physical injury on him.

"You'll see, the moment you let me out, I'll tell everyone there about what you've done and…"

"What did you do?' Heero demanded a little more forcefully from Wufei but again, he was ignored.

"Get him out of here now," Wufei roared, then clutched his side wincing.

"We should drop him off," Shaun pointed out offhandedly. "He's going to be useless wherever you're going."

"I'm fine," Wufei spat, hissing in pain.

"Shaun is right," Heero said thoughtfully. "You are not going to be very helpful in your state."

"Don't you try and ditch me," Wufei snarled. "I'm coming with you."

"What we don't need is useless groupies," Heero said. "We drop the kid off at the check point…"

"Kid, who are you calling kid!"

"…and drop Wufei off at the first aid counter," said Heero, ignoring Shaun's outburst.

"No," Wufei shouted. "I'm fine."

"I think you have concussion," Heero replied in turn.

"Guys," Quatre said his eyes fixed firmly ahead. "We have a problem."

"We drive through the security check point," Heero said without taking his eyes off Wufei. "They don't shoot civilian vehicles."

"I don't mean that sort of problem," Quatre said harshly.

"Just drive through," Heero snapped.

"You want me to run over Lady Une and Zechs as well?" Quatre demanded dryly. "They've already spotted us."

"What are you going to tell them about Duo and Trowa?" Shaun asked sounding pleased.

6.3: Flower Show

"I thought this was going to be a piece of cake," Duo grumbled, shading his eyes. "There's no way we'll find those plants in this mess."

His spirits had plummeted from the moment they had stepped onto L4. Firstly, it had been the first class rooms and the service which made him feel as if they were on a honeymoon not a Peace Keeper mission. Then, all the people who had been at the hotel seemed to have been either on family holidays or with their loved ones. It made Duo want to cry all of a sudden; perhaps Heero and Wufei were celebrating his absence the same way they had done before. At least, if he'd let Heero come with Trowa as originally planned, he could have been back on Earth with Wufei. Having one of your lovers was better than having none at all. What if he no longer had a place to go back to?

On the top of it all, Duo was starting feel uncomfortable about his heart to heart chat with Trowa. Had it been with someone else, then he would not have felt so embarrassed but Trowa was the Gundam pilot he felt the least close to and in a way, it would have been easier had he blurted out his story to a total stranger. When after all that Trowa had discreetly suggested they act as lovers to blend in easily (and to explain away why they were sharing a one bedroom suit), Duo had agreed reluctantly.

Then their contact had turned out to be a rather flighty female who was the daughter of their original contact. Which was bad on so many levels, Duo had lost count of the whole thing. She did not look as if she could count to ten let alone manage a store or be discreet about contacting the Peace Keepers.

"Father is too sick," she'd said with a toss of her long silky locks. "But he did tell me to tell you to watch out for the people next door (which was one of the largest flower stalls in the exhibition, about as large as Trowa's circus tent) and personally, I think it's 'cause they're selling all those African violets without telling the people how to look after them properly." Duo groaned aloud and face slapped himself for effect which was lost on the stupid female.

"She's not even blond and she's giving blondes a bad name," Duo mumbled under his breath.

"Here's a suggestion," Trowa said pleasantly as he handed over Duo his complimentary flower. "You go over to that guy there and ask him if he deals with illegal and I'll ask the other person."

"At the rate we're going, you should have come here with Wufei," Duo scowled. "She said they dealt in Asian roses and maybe he had a thorn fetish."

"What's with the attitude," Trowa asked as he threw an arm around Duo's shoulder and pulled him closer to keep up appearances. "You've been like this since we got here, what's the problem?"

"I don't know," Duo half wailed out loud as he rested his head on Trowa's shoulder. Trowa was warm and slightly skinny – he missed his two lovers even more which was surprising since he had been able to function alone before. "This is all wrong and I think I got off the wrong side of the bed this morning."

"So we had a little set back," Trowa said diplomatically. "Let's just go into the shop and look inside. We look suspicious enough standing in the middle of the pavement staring at it."

"Can't we just blow the whole place up?" Duo said with a grimace. "It was so much easier before."

"Imagine facing Lady Une with the expense sheet," Trowa said with a small smile. "I'm surprised she's letting us stay first class all the way…I mean the expenses are staggering."

"You mean the expenses are added up after the trip," Duo asked, feeling himself grow pale. "I…maybe I should have left that room service alone."

"But compared to the cost of the room, it's going to be nothing," Trowa said with a shrug. "So we might as well enjoy it while we get the chance."

"Especially since I think my life just got shorter," Duo said miserably. "Oh, well while we're at it, we might as well see if any of his plants have a red-veined under leaf," Duo said with a scowl, fixing the flower onto his hair.

"Our contact did say that this was the store where you could get those rare plants," Trowa said blandly. "And that flower looks so right on your hair dear."

Duo did a double take before he realized that the two of them standing in the middle of a footpath connecting stalls, arguing in low voices, was starting to draw the attention of the people browsing around them. He let Trowa steer him into the stall, which was built like a fairy garden. There were even hidden projectors from which 3d images of small fairies appeared, flying overhead. The small waterfalls were probably projections as well (since water was expensive on the Colonies), but looked so real that some of the small children were trying to splash in them.

However, he was drawn to the plants lining the walls in small clusters, arranged artistically by color and size, seeming to take up the entire room. The only difference between a normal garden and a flower stall seemed to be the small signs which displayed the name of the flower and the discreet price tag seen on the underside. The store attendants, dressed in dark green pants and light green tops patrolled the store, making sure no one made off accidentally with as much as leaf off a plant.

"Can we help you, sir?" a green-clothed gentleman appeared at their elbow and looked down at them the same way Duo remembered people had looked down at him when he was a street rat.

"Yes," said Trowa picking up the conversation. "I'm looking for something for my boyfriend." He pulled Duo even closer and smiled winningly at him. "Something to remind us of this visit."

"Do you know anything about looking after a plant?" the man asked with disdain.

"Well," said Duo stepping in. "I thought all you had to do was water it from time to time."

He might as well have said that they'd feed it to the dog by the look on the attendant's face.

"Ignore him," said Trowa stepping on Duo's foot lightly. "He's in a bad mood since …." He leaned forward and whispered something into the mans' ear which made him blanch.

"Hey," Duo protested as the purple faced attendant walked off rapidly.

"It was either that or kiss you in public," Trowa mumbled into Duo's ear. "Just…don't make too much of a fuss over it. This is a flower show for the fanatics so you appearing ignorant is going to be suspicious."

"You could have just said you're the one obsessed with plants and I just came with you for the ride," Duo said with a small smile. He saw the man point out the two of them to a much younger-looking male assistant and direct him towards them.

"Homophobic old fart," Trowa said without a beat. "But luckily for us, he just passed us off to a newbie who'll probably overlook it if we get overly curious. The one before was far too observant for our purpose."

"Why am _I_ the girl in this relationship again?" Duo grumbled even as he smiled at their new escort. "I can lip read you know."

"I don't have hair down to my ass, do I?" Trowa said pointedly even as he let the new attendant, with a tag on his chest which read Tony, lead them towards the back of the shop.

"I was told you are interested some hardy plants," Tony said as he steered them. "Cacti or something similar."

"I'm already in love with that guy," said Duo over at the man who had first greeted them. To his surprise he saw that the man was staring at them with a look of distaste on his face. However, it was not the look of someone having seen something repulsive or disgusting, rather it was the look of self-disgust as if he had done something regrettable. "Half of them look as if they're in agony…the way they twist…is that natural," Duo chose to comment on the plants instead of making a big issue of it.

"Most certainly sir," Tony looked shocked. "We would never sell anything that has been tampered genetically."

"Well," said Trowa looking at them. "I think I'd like something with a little more color on their leaves…other than green."

Duo winced. They were about as unconvincing undercover as a pair of bulls in a shop made of egg shells. They just might as well have marched into the shop and demanded for a rare plant from Earth. Apparently, Torwa's undercover skills seemed to be solely in infiltrating military compounds.

"I like this one," Duo said at a loss of anything else to say, pointing randomly at a plant. "This looks …eh…interesting." It was a thorny plant with bright red colored clusters of flowers on top. "It's called…" he squinted at the sign. "…you've got to be kidding me."

He felt Trowa look over his shoulder at the name on the tag. "Euphorbia Milii," he read with a smile.

"Very –er - nice choice," Tony said looking pleased. "Easy to grow and flowers regularly. Suitable for hot climates and pollinated by a number of insects or you can buy our latest pollinator model that comes with each plant and is shaped like a bee. Only thing is the sap is slightly carcinogenic and if you get it in your eyes you'll most likely be blinded."

"I'm loving this plant more and more," Duo said with a smile. "And it's got a name which says it's got a fear of being called 'you'".

"And you sir, wanted something with a little color as well green," Tony said to Trowa.

"Flowers are nice, but something red all over," Trowa said with a shrug.

"This way then," said Tony leading them further back. "What you want should be more suitable for a plant which only survives at a controlled temperature. We have special containers in the back for such plant."

"Sure," said Duo giving his euphorbia one last glance. "Just…I'm coming back for this one. I think I'll take it."

At a discreet wave from Tony a girl walked up and took the plant Duo had pointed out, then rolled it away on a trolley.

"Credit care or cash, sir?" Tony asked softly.

"I'll decide when I've seen the other plants as well," Trowa said without even looking at the price tag while Duo tried to imagine Lady Une's face when presented with their expense sheet. Maybe it was time they started thinking about an alternate place to settle down in.

"This way," said Tony as they proceeded towards the back of the stall, past more roses that looked artificial. Duo sniffed one and received a slap on the back of his head from Trowa for his efforts. When he looked up, Trowa nodded towards the signs set at regular intervals which advised people not to sniff or touch the plants.

"Sir," said Tony looking shocked. "Some of the chemicals we use for insect repellant are dangerous to humans. Please, if you want to smell them, I'd suggest you visit our gift stall where we have perfumes made of the flowers. Perhaps you can buy one for your…er…each other."

"That was smooth," Trowa said with a small smile as Tony blushed. "Lead on."

They were about to head further back when Duo's wrist watch vibrated. He looked at it in surprise and said, "Time really flies, doesn't it? I need to make a com call, just wait." He dug into his pocket for his com unit before he remembered that was of no use inside the stalls. The stalls used a high-frequency com block to stop people inside from transmitting information about the plants to others. While most visitors could recount the information from memory, it was stall policy and what one stall did- all the other stall did as well.

"Here," said Tony pointing towards a wall unit. "Actual phone, wires attached. Gets through the no-com barrier set up around the shop."

"Thanks," said Duo, heading towards it. He dialed Quatre's number by memory and waited for it to connect. Inter-space calls always took time to connect and he could hear the background chatter as he waited for the connection to be established.

Quatre answered on the third ring with an enthusiastic, "Duo, you're just on time."

"Hi, mom," Duo said with a grin at Trowa who rolled his eyes. "Just wanted to tell you that we're visiting the flower stalls here – the largest one at the moment. I'm…we're both ok. I've got to go; I think I'm adding up to the stall's expenses. Love you loads."

"You too," Quatre said from the other side. "Don't do anything stupid and try to stay out of trouble. Call me back in four hours."

Duo hung up and looked at the other two, who appeared to be discussing something as inconspicuous as a white rose plant but were most likely listening in on him. Tony looked a bit strange when he hung up, which Duo put down to his eagerness to get away from them once he deal was done.

Duo checked his watch to ensure that the next alarm would go off in another four hours. It would not do for them to miss their call-back times and unnecessarily worry Quatre. Then he nodded to the other two and wandered over to join them. "So, you were going to show us the special plants?"

"This way," said Tony, picking up where he had left off and then pointed towards a small door in the back of the stall.

"That looks sorta out of the way," Duo said, stopping.

Even Trowa wore a scowl on his face and it was obvious that he was also feeling uneasy.

"That is where we have the special controlled temperature units," Tony explained. "I should warm you they are a little confined so if you are uneasy about closed spaces…" he left it hanging, giving them the perfect opportunity to walk away.

"Nah," said Duo with a small smile. "Let's go see this special thingy."

"Maybe, one of us should stay here," Trowa said with a frown.

"No!' Duo said sharply then realized he had sounded a little too intense. "We don't split up –er- dear."

Tony had already walked through the door so they followed, straight into a two meter by four metal container, lined with shelves full of soft foam packing. The grills lining it made it obvious that it was used for transporting plants in low temperature.

"You know," said Duo with a grin. "I don't think what we're looking for is here. We're looking for tropical plants remember, not low temperature stuff."

"We used something similar to cryogenics to transport the plants," Tony explained from the other end of the container. That way, they need less care during the long transit voyage…since we can't have people watering them and all, and they don't get damaged as much."

"Impressive," said Duo as the door closed behind them slowly. He turned around to see if it had a lock on the other side but there seemed to be none.

"One way door to make sure that loading and unloading proceeds normally," Tony explained. "We exit through here." He swung open a door behind his back, stepped out and in one lightning-fast move, shut in behind him.

Both Trowa and Duo jumped towards the door at the same time, the instincts that had kept them alive throughout the war coming to play.

"It's locked," Duo said, feeling the edges.

"It could be a mistake," Trowa said with a grimace.

"You think," said Duo, kneeling to feel the lower edge. "Damn, these things are like air locks, they seal completely.

"Can't you pick it?" Trowa asked.

"Pick what?" Duo said a little hysterically. "I need a lock to pick, I can't open bare walls. We'll be stuck here until we run out of air."

"I think not," said Trowa waving a hand in front of the grill. "They've switched on the cooling system. We'll freeze before we run out of air."

[1 This is because it is considered polite to be dressed fully when meeting an elderly person. It's a show of respect for the elders by not showing up half dressed which, though it's more of an Asian cultural aspect.

[2 http://en. I would suggest people read Michael Criton's Rising Sun.

http://en. sorry if the flower show was boring.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

A/N- sorry for the delay. I think the worst of the rush is over and I should be updating regularly now.

7.1: Take off

A/n- Zechs referring everyone as 'boy' is intentional. He just doesn't realize they've all grown up.

Zechs Marquise had taken part in numerous space launches; so many that he'd lost count. He'd taken fresh rookies to the outer orbital relays for training, he had escorted ministers and he had gone off in command of troops to suppress 'unrest' in the colonies. The launches had been eventful in their own way. He remembered the time he'd nursed a hangover in the cargo holder with slight fondness of an adult reminiscing about the glory of youth. However, despite all his experience he was sure that, by far, this was going to be the most memorable.

And not in a good way.

Winner had chosen a cargo shuttle as their mode of transport over the more comfortable passenger shuttles since this was a Maganac special, which translated into speed. However there was very little comfort for the humans inside since the entire shuttle resembled one gigantic engine with a small metal can on top – much to the disappointment of Shaun who had never been to space and had only seen VIP space shuttles in 3d-vid.

"Oh, man," he said sitting, clutching the hand rests and looking around. "What a bucket."

"But a fast bucket," Winner said from the co-pilot seat while Chang scowled and fiddled with the belt buckle across his chest. Unlike normal shuttles that had well padded seats braced for shock the smaller ones behaved like Gundams in space. The passengers could feel every minute change in settings through the entire frame.

"You," Yuy said, looking at Zechs pointedly. "Come up here."

"What, you can't keep this thing straight can you?" Shaun said with a sneer to Yuy and Zechs looked at the boy in confusion.

Zechs was there for observation purposes only, under the orders of Lady Une. Shaun had actually joined them by shear force of will. ("Either you let me get on board with them or I'm going to scream you're all Gundam pilots.") Even before the group had boarded the shuttle it had been long decided that Yuy and Winner would pilot to L4 and Zechs would be the one reporting back to Lady Une. Chang had hung out in the background, scowling from under the purple bruise decorating his face and now, in contrast to his normally stoic self, he was squirming in the seat.

"It'll get rougher as we leave the atmosphere," Yuy admitted monotonously. Having seen the way the boy behaved towards his fellow pilots, Zechs was sure it was just an act Yuy reserved for people he considered strangers or an annoyance.

"So," said Zechs curiously, unsnapping the harness and standing up. He had to brace his knees since the shuttle was rocking but years of practice prevented him from falling off his feet and getting plastered over the bulkhead. "Why should I pilot?"

"Wufei isn't going to stand the harness for long," Yuy said a little reluctantly while Chang made a noise befitting a startled five-year-old.

"What's wrong with him?" Zechs asked, snapping into his former role as the Lightning Count with men under his command.

"I'm fine," Chang snarled from his seat next to Shaun. "I think it's time we…"

"He's got a cracked rib or two," Yuy answered quietly. "The harness will make it worse in the long run."

"You brought an injured person on a dangerous mission," Zechs stated in a quiet voice as he sat in the co-pilot seat. He buckled up and ran a diagnostics over the shuttle, just to get acquainted with the instrument panel then looked at the navigation unit which was computing the quickest route to L4. If Yuy brought his injured friend aboard then there was a purpose to his presence.. There was no instantaneous reply but Zechs decided to wait it out instead of prodding. When the silence persisted for some time, Zechs twisted in his seat and looked over at 01.

"And you allowed a dead weight to join us," Yuy said jerking a thumb towards Shaun. The defensiveness in his answer made Zechs frown. It was very out of character for the normally passionless boy to avoid such a question and redirect it in this manner. Zechs turned around fully – just to make sure it was Yuy he was talking to and not another person whom he had missed to notice earlier. Much to his alarm, Shaun was turning an interesting shade of green; thankfully, whatever was wrong with him had also made him tight lipped and rather silent, despite the insult.

"We have no time for this," Winner said as the shuttle bucked again. "Double check the calculations for me and tell me how long it will take for us to get there."

Zechs nodded and started to pay attention to the screen, wondering what the heck was going on. The entire craft did a spiral to the left, making Winner swear, then straightened under his guidance .. He directed more power to the left engine to fight the drag to the right, and started to to balance the stabilizers manually. There was no assurance that things would get better as they reached their destination though…

Shaun moaned pitifully from behind, more out of fear than anything else, his false bravado giving way to outright panic from the sound of it.

"Zechs," Winner snapped. "Calculations."

"Uh," he said, a little stunned and really, really not in tune with the present. "They seem fine." He'd never sat in a control seat before. He had been a soldier and a field commander not a navigator.

"What's with you?" Winner said in a voice that snapped him back into the present situation. "Have you even looked at this? It's going to take too long. But I think there is a way to shave off a couple of minutes from the departure time." Much to Zechs horror, Winner then pulled out a stubby pencil and a piece of paper and started to do the calculations manually… leaving out the safety margins by the look of it. It was not that Zechs hadn't done that -- leave out the safety margins, not do manual calculations (he was not a child prodigy) -- in important missions but OZ had always had a reliable space fleet, meaning maneuverable vessels. He opened his mouth to protest then snapped it shut; they were not on a suicide mission and Lady Une had always said that Winner had the most analytical mind of the group. And he knew all the Gundam pilots had high IQs, so just maybe, they could arrive at L4 at an earlier time than what the computer predicted. The group behind him was silent, which did not bode well in any situation. Yuy was silent by nature but not Chang and Shaun…

Unable to resist, Zechs swiveled his chair around and faced inwards again, calculations forgotten, and saw something he did not think he'd ever forget. Yuy was gently unbuckling Chang and helping him stand, bracing his scruffy sneakers on the uneven floor. Then, even as he watched, Yuy sat down buckled up and pulled Chang onto his lap as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Chang reacted like a scalded cat, hissing and snarling that he did not want to be babied or mollycoddled, but even as he said those things Zechs could see the tension lines on his face disperse. Change _had _been in pain because of the harness and Yuy had noticed. He half expected Shaun to make some insulting comment about it but instead the younger boy had his eyes closed, biting his lower lip with almost enough force to draw blood.

"I'm fine," Chang ground out even as he settled into Yuy's hold, his breathing becoming considerably easier. Zechs noted that Yuy had not commented at all, only stroked the raven black hair once, grunted, then continued to hold the other pilot as steady as possible.

"You'd better check on Shaun," Yuy said quietly, not even looking at Zechs, letting Chang tuck his head under his chin. It was difficult process; though Yuy was tall, he was not _that much_ taller than Chang but the other boy did not complain. From the way he let Chang settle down on his lap, Zechs wondered if his sister had been barking the wrong tree all this time. There was no way anyone, even a close friend would let someone do those things…unless they were… on that level of physical intimacy…

"Zechs," Winner snapped, no longer the nice blond kid with the sweet smile. "What's wrong with Shaun?"

"I'm going to be sick," Shaun announced loudly.

"We're almost out of the gravitational field," Winner warmed. "Don't throw up in zero-g Shaun, or I'll have to eject you through the cargo hatch."

Shaun moaned. "Who cares? We're all going to die!"

"Then why did you get on this, you moron," Chang snarled.

"Shut up," Shaun replied, his vigor missing. The boy was really sick if he wasn't rising to the bait and Zechs could see the danger of thousands of drops of vomit floating around in zero-g. He unbuckled and threw himself at the chair next to Yuy, which had been previously occupied by Chang. He sat down then buckled up for good measure. He wasn't stupid enough to think himself invulnerable in space just because he had a couple of thousands of flight hours under his belt. He then reached over to Shaun and closed his hand over the smaller one, clutching the arm rest.

"Shaun," he said softly.

"I don't want to talk to you," Shaun spat back. "Prince Milliardo."

Zechs' eyes widened at that and he almost drew back. "What…"

"You…just stay away from…" gulp. "…me." Gulp.

'_Don't throw up, now_,' Zechs prayed even as he considered his answer. "I gave up my title long time ago," he said softly. "My sister is a Princess. I was just born into the wrong family."

"Screw you," Shaun said as suddenly the shuttle broke through the atmosphere and into weightlessness. He heard Chang gasp in relief and Winner give a snort. The shuttle pitched then steadied as the auxiliary engines switched on smoothly. Zechs frowned at the sound of the engine. Unlike the ones for atmospheric navigation, these sounded smooth…fast; and that deep throb meant they were new. Interesting. Maybe those safety margins could be skipped. He returned his attention to Shaun and tried again.

"Shaun… look, I know you are just a kid and…."

"I'm not a kid…"

"How much time?" Yuy asked, ignoring Zechs' weak attempts at communication.

"Four hours max," Winner said confidently. "Don't take off your seat belts yet, we're going to do a few turns now and then." Then he turned around and looked at Zechs over his shoulder. "Why don't you take over for a while so I can put my legs up and pull out the L4 maps?"

Zechs looked at with a frown at the odd request. "You can come back to my seat, Shaun can sit in the co-pilot seat and you can show him the view of Earth from space," Winner offered smoothly.

The youngest boy looked up, eyes bright with excitement at the thought of sitting in the co-pilot's seat. Zechs made a mental note to lock the co-pilot controls and nodded to Winner a silent thanks. Maybe, just maybe, now he could get to the bottom of what was bothering the kid.

7.2: In the cold

Trowa wound an arm around Duo and pulled the shivering pilot closer to him. Duo's hands were already cold and his lips were turning an unhealthy blue. He felt Duo give a shudder as he buried his face into Trowa's neck and sniffed pitifully.

"I'm cold," he announced.

"Oh," Trowa said. He knew from experience the longer they kept on moving the better their chances of remaining warm. But half an hour into their lock up, they'd discovered that the walls were getting colder, driving them closer to the center of their small enclosure.

And more and more, they had gravitated towards the center until they were standing back to back wondering what to do. It seemed natural for the two of them to turn around and hug each other for body heat and finally to fall to the ground on their knees to conserve as much of it as they could.

"Packing," Duo said slowly.

"Clothes?" said Trowa wondering Duo was starting to lose his mind.

"Are you all right?" Duo asked, looking up, concerned, and then pointed to the sides where rows of packing crates were stacked. "When you sleep in the streets the first thing you find out is what keeps you warm in the cold …and those packing work as excellent insulators."

"Wait here," said Trowa, getting to his feet. He found out to his surprise that he had to brace both his palms on the floor to push himself up and when he did stand up, his legs were not that steady. He staggered slightly to left, and felt Duo get up beside him.

"We were sitting in the same place for too long," Duo explained. "It's too cold for us to let our bodies get rigid. I'll help you…"

"No, you stay there," Trowa said as circulation returned to his legs. "How much time do we have before we need to report back to Quatre?"

"Two hours, four minutes and a few seconds," Duo said sounding a little weary. "And you know it's going to take even longer for them to realize something is wrong, arrange a rescue vessel and …and…"

"We'll have to get out of this on our own then," said Trowa, as he reached for the discarded crates. He lifted one to make sure it was empty and then nodded in satisfaction- they'd do for a while. He opened one and examined the contents, feeling slightly relieved; there was some foam left over from the trip from Earth, used to pad the sides of the boxes so the plants inside would not get damaged. The foam was made up of thousands of air bubbles trapped in the spongy material -- ideal for keeping heat in. He heard Duo doing the same thing on the other side of the room. "Get the foam out separately," he advised. "If we put some inside our clothes, it'll help us conserve body heat."

"I suppose this is the time when people have wild sex to keep warm, right?" Duo asked lightly, his back turned to Trowa as he tore through the boxes.

"Only if you believe such nonsense," Trowa said with a faint smile. He looked over at Duo who was pointedly not looking at him and frowned. He had thought there was a certain tone to that question but he hadn't been able to tell exactly what, so he'd ignored it. But now he wasn't sure. "Duo?" he said softly. "What is it?"

"Nothing," Duo said a little too quickly. "You must be wishing you were here with someone else, huh?"

"What do you mean?" Trowa asked. Did he wish to be frozen to death with another person? What a strange question.

"I mean if it were Quatre or …someone else." Duo said evasively. "You know what they say…." Weak laughter. "…sex keeps you warm."

Trowa rolled his eyes at that. "Trust me, I know better," he said with a huff. "I've survived Earth winters, and having sex in a cold environment is a stupid excuse to fall into bed, which people use to sell books." He frowned for a moment then decided to stress his point. "If you take off your clothes your body loses the protection against the cold so you lose your body heat and your clothes get cold as well. Sex generates sweat, which can freeze and…"

"I get the picture…really," Duo said, sounding a little defeated, a handful of foam in his hand. "Just that…if…Heero were here or someone else, then wouldn't you have a better chance of getting out? I mean, he could have kicked the door down or something."

"Well," said Trowa, wondering where exactly this conversation was heading. "He isn't here and you are." He wondered if he should add something more like, '_if there was any person I'd prefer to get stuck with in a frozen box, it'd be you_'. Nah, he was cold not mad.

"So, you and Heero," Duo started again and Trowa wondered if Duo was worried about something or fishing for information about their past affaire.

"Is there anything you'd like to know?" he asked finally turning around. "About me and Heero perhaps or…"

"Are you two, still…" Duo looked over his shoulder. "Together?"

"We are friends," Trowa said carefully. "After what I did to him, I didn't think he'd ever forgive me but really, he's…" he remembered Heero's behavior just before the mission and looked at Duo. "You and Wufei haven't kicked him out or anything, have you?"

"Not a chance," Duo said vehemently and Trowa dropped the idea fast.

"Then what…?"

"Oh," said Duo and fell to his knees. Trowa dropped his box in a hurry and made his way over to Duo.

"What is it?"

"Look," said Duo, holding out a handful of foam for Trowa to see.

"What?" Trowa asked again mystified.

"Look closer," said Duo, pointing to the foam and then Trowa saw what Duo was trying to show him. Nestled in the foam was a small red-spotted leaf. The same leaf they had seen in countless mission folders. The plant they had been sent to look for at the plant show.

"I think it's the one," Trowa agreed kneeling down for a closer look. "Not that it'll do us much good right now."

"Just you wait," said Duo, straitening. "We aren't dead yet and…and you'll see…." He carefully placed the foam in a separate box, closed it and pushed it to side. "We are going to need it."

"We've got enough foam here," Trowa said. "Let's work on getting warm first and afterwards we can try to break out of here once the store closes for the day." Not that he thought they'd succeed, but the idea they might be able to would keep them going for a while.

He made a small foam seat to protect his butt from the cold of the metal floor and sat carefully, slightly surprised when Duo settled between his legs, leaning against his chest.

Trowa knew they had to stuff the foam into their clothes but he was feeling lethargic –already. He took a handful half-heartedly and put some inside Duo's shirt.

"Say Trowa," Duo said thoughtfully and Trowa tensed. They had done the best they could...they had tried to find a way out; they had tried tapping the walls (screaming, shouting) and even digging under. They were well and truly stuck and nothing was going to make a difference. He desperately hoped Duo was not going to make some profound statement which would have both of them panicking.

They were both Gundam pilots and had faced death many times. But freezing to death in a small metal compartment reserved for potted plant transportation seemed so undignified… and Trowa felt as if he was the responsible adult trying to keep Duo from stating the obvious.

"Yeah," he said softly.

"I gotta pee," Duo said firmly.

"You… what!"

"You know, must be the cold… I really have to go," Duo said loudly.

"Duo…"

"I know it's not the right place to say this and the smell will never go away in a closed space but maybe I shouldn't have drunk all those bottles of juice…."

Trowa sighed.

"….and think of water sprinklers and taps and...and…waterfalls and …"

Now he was starting to feel uncomfortable. He hadn't even _thought of wanting_ to 'pee' as Duo had eloquently put it but now his bladder felt suspiciously full.

"…and long, long rivers…the type you see in 3D-vids, and did I say I really need to pee?"

"Duo," Trowa said wearily. "Change the subject, please."

"Oh." There was a silence. "All right. To what?"

"Something other than the cold and your need to pee," Trowa said ready to scream.

"How about something about you," Duo said slowly. "I talked about myself on the trip here and I'm sure everyone knows I'm the lone survivor of the Maxwell church tragedy and stuff. We don't have to go over the same old thing again…what about you?"

"What would you like to know?" Trowa said, pulling Duo closer to him…if it was possible. The foam crackled, it was warmer than before and the talking was distracting but still, they were steadily losing body heat.

"Who was the person you first had sex with?" Duo said after a few minutes of thoughtfulness. "Well…something like that."

"Couldn't you have just picked a simpler question like what my favorite color is or something?" Trowa said dryly.

"Yeah," said Duo, sounding a little embarrassed. "Sorry…maybe that wasn't the best question to ask. What is your favorite color?"

"That's all right," said Trowa with a shrug. His hands were cold but he didn't want to let go of Duo who was shivering slightly. He'd start to worry when Duo stopped shivering. Then he'd have to do something drastic. "I don't have a favorite color anyway."

"So…" Duo said blowing at his fingers. "I know you grew up with a bunch of mercenaries…that's where you got your technical skill. Did you have group sex with those people?"

Trowa almost laughed. "Not really," he said with a shake of his head. "I saw a lot of things that would count as sex education but no one there really screwed me." He was silent, trying to find the words to explain it. "They didn't even give me a name. For them, I was just some piece of equipment like a gun or a car. I was there, ran errands and once in a while they'd mess with me a bit. You know, touch me and all but never real sex. To have sex with me would have been to acknowledge me as a person and they never wanted that."

"Uh, Trowa," Duo said sounding a little stifled. "Buddy…how about easing off a bit…" A cough. "…can't breath."

It was then Trowa realized he was clutching Duo hard to his chest. "Sorry," he said, easing his grip.

"'S ok," Duo shrugged "No ribs broken."

"Anyway," said Trowa, speaking softly. "In answer to your question, the first person who had sex with me who really counts was Trowa Barton. The real Trowa Barton."

Duo remained silent, one hand gripping Trowa's forearm so Trowa decided it was safe to continue.

"I don't even know if he was gay or just wanted a quick release with the most convenient object at hand, and he didn't exactly give me a name either… but he treated me like a person. He was…" he searched for the proper word. "..gentle…" that was close enough "…when we fucked and sometimes he'd show me pictures of his sister's kid and stuff. You know, talk to me as if I existed. Not that I loved him or anything but when he died I took his name 'cause it felt right…"

He broke off as Duo started to cough. He loosened his grip, wondering if he was clutching Duo too tight again, but it did not seem to be the case. "Duo," he said worriedly.

"I'm ok," Duo said a little weakly.

"Turn around and put your hands inside my shirt," Trowa said, a little concerned. "I can tell you a few details about my time at the circus if you want." Anything to keep themselves awake. He just hoped someone would come to their rescue soon.

7.3: To the rescue

Shaun hated Winner with vengeance. Blond and blue-eyed and all so perfect. He was also so bossy. Did he have to give order everyone around like that!

"Wufei," Winner ordered in an annoying tone, which was as if his voice was sugar sweet but probably laced with arsenic. "You'll have to stay with the ship when we dock. You'll have to handle the customs officers."

"I…"

"You have a broken rib or two and will be totally useless in close combat," Winner said without a pause. "Now, behave like a responsible adult and we'll deal with the rest from here. You will have your use, anyway. Have the paramedics ready and brief the local authorities on the situation if you think it's needed."

'_Yeah,_' Shaun thought with a mental smirk. He wasn't stupid enough to say that aloud. '_One point for Winner. Zero for Chang for being a loser_.' He also gave himself one point for giving everyone else points.

Much to Shaun's disappointment, Chang did not argue for long. He nodded and stepped back, scowling, but his body language said 'I obey you, great leader.'

"How are we going to get past the customs officers?" Zechs asked and Shaun looked at Winner slowly. He liked the way Zechs spoke; that voice was hypnotic and that long blond hair made him feel so…so…

"There is a side ventilation shaft we can use," Winner said. "Come on, before they notice us."

"I'm coming too," Shaun said.

"Please take him," Chang said, sounding almost desperate. "Another hour with him and I'll kill him myself."

"He's coming," Winner said, sounding less that enthusiastic. Shaun stuck his tongue out just for the fun of it, and gave himself another point

The grate in front of the ventilation shaft was made of iron bars as thick as his wrist. Zechs gave the bars a shake and looked at Winner. "How do you suggest we get through this?" Another point for him, Shaun decided.

"Heero," said Winner, this time a little amused. The blue-eyed Japanese (_ok, since when have there been blue eyed Japanese, really!_) was hanging back, looking at the shuttle worriedly as if someone might steal it. Not that anyone would want that scrap heap, especially with that Chink on board. "He'll be fine…just…can you handle the grate?"

'_How_,' Shaun wondered. '_Blow it up with explosives?_'

Heero Yuy took apart the metal grating with his bare hands – as if they were matchsticks. Shaun stopped giving himself points there and then, and Zechs looked –surprised – in the wide-eyed jaw-dropping manner, which was almost comical. If he had been in a more receptive mood, Shaun would have happily shared this moment of disbelief with Zechs, the only other person who seemed to be in awe, but he was far too humiliated by what had happened on the shuttle to do that.

He had thrown up.

The view of Earth had been magnificent, like a little blue ball bobbing up and down in the sky, like a ping-pong ball on water or a boat on a choppy lake or…stupid shuttle was worse than a roller coaster. He had actually made it to the small water closet before throwing up. The sinks had thankfully been designed with suction pumps, but it had been a close call, and Zechs had held his head and patted his back through the entire procedure. Then he'd wiped Shaun's face with a wet cloth and held him against his chest until he could breath normally again. Zechs had smelled of cinnamon and the faintest trace of sweat. He had been so composed and in-charge like a prince while all Shaun had been able to do was snarl at him and barf like a five-year-old. He'd been so crushed he'd not looked at Zechs the entire trip. How was he supposed to be angry at guy who was so…so nice? Royalty was supposed to be a bunch of jackasses who sat back watched other people – like his father and himself -- suffer and die. But Zechs was so different… even if he had been the guy to fire Libra's canon at Earth…

"What are we waiting for, people?" Winner asked, sounding smug. "Let's go. We can emerge safely on the Dark Side of L4 without any problem."

The Dark Side of L4 was badly lit, poorly maintained and seemed to have more dead-end alleyways than a rat-maze. And people in compromising positions in …a hand fell over Shaun's view as he was about to take a closer look. Annoyed, he pushed off the arm and looked up to see who had blocked his view…It was Zechs.

"What did you do that for?" he scowled.

"Some things are better of unseen," Zechs said with a shrug. "Especially by little boys."

"I'm not…"

"You two," said Winner materializing like a blond eyesore. "We have to get going. The street in front will take us up to the upper levels and from there we'll have to go to the Plant show and …I guess we'll have to go through all the stalls…"

"I know who their contact is," Shaun spoke before he could help it. At Yuy's grunt of disbelief he scowled. "I saw the mission specs, ok? I'm not a total moron. I can read."

"Move," Yuy grunted, still looking displeased. "We're wasting time."

"Really," Shaun couldn't help it. "I thought we came here for the view."

"That's really mature of you two," Winner said with a trace of displeasure.

"Screw you, too."

11111111111-------------!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Finding the freaking Flower stall where the Maxwell and Barton had gone missing was easy. The female who was their contact just about told them everything and it was easy to figure out where the leak had come from.

Shaun fumed.

He'd remembered all the mission details and led them to THE SPOT and not one word. Not even a well done. If he'd been a dog, they'd have at least patted his back or something. A bunch of morons-- all of them. He might not be a Gundam pilot (he was the office coffee boy) but he was still one of them- they could at least acknowledge him.

They made their way to the stall with all the finesse of a troop of foot-soldiers on a charge. Shaun would have preferred discretion, a back door entry (not sexual) or a tunnel underground. (_Can you dig underground in a space colony?_) Yuy went in first, grabbed the com of the wall as he did and thumbed it on. It was for making discreet announcements by the Flower stall staff to shoppers like, "_Please remove child with green vest from Cactus number three_" and "_delivery in t-3 seconds_".

"Everyone, get out," Yuy said firmly in his no-nonsense voice. There was a five second interval while everyone paused, wondering if it was some joke. Some of the staff started to move towards Yuy who was holding the com and looking slightly bored. "NOW" No one moved. "Or I'll ki…"

"People," said Winner grabbing the com out of Yuy's hand with a fake smile. "There's a bomb in the Flower stall. Leave in a calm and orderly manner…" The stall was emptying out so fast it was like watching someone turn over a bucket of sand. Shaun watched as well dressed female ran out then ran back in to pick up her forgotten child. Thankfully, it was mid-day in the colony, and a weekday, so the stall was not that crowded. One of the staff members reached Winner and tired to take the com from him – then crumpled to the ground silently. It took Shaun three seconds to realize Yuy had just sucker punched the guy, knocking him out cold.

When the people had cleared out faster than possible, Winner had turned around and smiled warmly at the store manager.

"We're looking for two friends of ours," Winner said pleasantly. "One tall, one short…one long haired, one short haired…"

"One with two eyes, one with one…" Shaun couldn't help murmuring under his breath sarcastically.

"We've called the authorities," the manager said angrily.

"That'll save us the trouble," Winner said equally forcefully. "Now…where were we…"

"There are no visible hiding places here," Yuy said blandly, looking around.

"Have you checked behind the plants?" Zechs asked and Shaun saw what they were heading towards. He'd seen it many times when forcing store owners to obey someone's wishes – roughen up the store a bit and the person usually rolled over and gave what they wanted.

"The outside measurements match the inside measurements of these walls," Yuy said, missing the point completely. "I see no point in destroying plants…." Then he looked at the manager and smiled –slowly. "I feel no such obligation towards people. Especially if they've hurt Duo or Trowa."

Shaun looked around, frustrated. Both sides were bluffing nicely; they didn't even know if those two where here or not- all they had was the word of some airheaded female, and it wasn't much to go by. Barton and Maxwell could have moved out while she was putting her makeup on for all they knew. The manager knew that was simply stalling for time. Zechs was watching the back entrance but this was so...so…. "Side door," Shaun said before he could think, pointing to a small, discreetly placed door which read 'Staff only'.

"Mind if we take a look," Winner said and Shaun saw with alarm that Winner was turning blue – and shivering.

"Quatre?" Yuy also sounded worried.

"I'm just…c…cold all of a sudden," he said with a weak laugh. "I don't know why but all of a sudden I feel as if I'm in a deep freeze…"

"Cold storage," said Yuy suddenly. "Where are your cold storage units being kept?"

The manger turned pale just as Yuy surged forward, faster than they'd have thought was humanly possible …

It was rather anticlimactic since Yuy, Winner and Zechs sort of walked right through the weak resistance the shop employees managed to dredge up. They even managed to find the holding pen-er- box as soon as possible –with minimal damage. That is, Yuy kicked the door in with surprising ease and would have given it a kick that would have sent in off its hinges if Winner hadn't reminded him that there were people inside who might not appreciate a flying metal door in their faces.

Shaun had hung back at that time; mostly because well…he felt out of sorts. Winner had rushed inside swearing and Yuy had been no better. From the way they'd knelt beside their team mates it was obvious they cared for each other very much.

"Took you long enough," Barton had said in a gravelly voice from their foam nest. "Think you can get Duo? He's in a bad way."

"No.." A cough. "…he's not…" Maxwell said weakly, struggling to sit up. Yuy had scooped him up as if he weighed nothing and Winner was trying to do a strip tease and put his clothes on other people.

Zechs stepped past Winner and picked up Barton, the same way as Yuy had done to Maxwell, making them all start. "We should go outside and discuss things," Zechs said with a smile. "Everyone seems to be all right."

"That box," said Barton, without looking, pointing towards the back. "Get it."

Shaun obliged since he seemed to be only person who hadn't done anything yet, and he was feeling as useful as a third leg. As he did, he heard Maxwell ask, "Where's 'Fei?"

"With the ship," Yuy said shortly. "You all right?"

"I must be," Maxwell managed to sound amused despite a sore throat. "Since Lightning Barbie came to my rescue." Shaun heard Zechs choke.

11111111111-----111111111111111

"Wonder what they're doing?" said Shaun, looking at Zechs who was sitting next to him on the sofa, filing a report to Lady Une. There was no need to say who _they_ were. The five had locked themselves into one bedroom for ages and if not for Chang's broken ribs and Maxwell's sniffing, Shaun would have thought they were having an orgy.

"Probably wondering why their mission report was altered," Zechs said, distracted.

"I think they changed it," Shaun said.

"I think so too," Zechs agreed. "More tea?"

"Uh…no," Shaun shook his head. Winner was a good host but there was a limit to the amount of tea one could drink in one go. "You know…" It was now or never. He had to broach the subject that was worrying him

"Yes?" Zechs put down his papers and looked at him slowly.

"Well, when we were coming here…the …the alleyway…you covered my eyes when those people were having se…"

"I can remember the scene," Zechs interrupted.

"Well," Shaun paused. "Why did you do that?" There was a silence so Shaun decided to elaborate. "I was a hooker before Sally picked me up. I sucked dicks, I…"

"I know."

"…had men older than my father shove their pricks up my…"

"I knew for sometime now."

"Then why did you treat me like that there? As if I was some innocent little kid who was going to get shocked if he sees something like that?" Shaun burst out.

"Is it wrong of me to treat you like a fourteen year old now and then?" Zechs asked with a half smile.

"Almost fifteen," Shaun said in a stunned voice.

"The war...forced all of us to grow up too fast," Zechs continued. "I know it's cruel and I can't make up for that. Those kids in there…" he indicated towards the closed door. "…have their share of monsters to deal with but they have each other. Why can't I treat you like you should have been treated…even if it's too late now?"

Shaun felt like crying all of a sudden. "Fuck you," he said looking away, blinking away tears.

"There's a great ice skating ring here on L4," Zechs said briskly. "Tell you what, once I finish this off, I'll take you there. How about that?" He got up softly, squeezed Shaun's shoulder in an absentminded way and walked towards the inner office, probably to get more tea. "Wanted to do that with my sister but she's too busy these days and I think those five need time on their own."

"All right," said Shaun, watching the retreating back, long blond hair cascading down like fine a finely woven curtain. His shoulder where Zechs had touched him was warm and his heart was beating hard. He let his head drop as soon as Zechs was out of sight then smiled softly, "It's a date." Well not technically but he was working on it.

Now his day was perfect, and all he needed to crown it was for those five to have an awful time explaining why Maxwell had been on a mission intended for Yuy.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary:** In case you've forgotten this is 1x2x5 and 3x4. And Zechs is there as well as an original character called Shaun. This concentrates mainly on the difficulties of Duo, Heero, and Wufei trying to have a relationship and deal with each others' insecurities. Duo can't bottom, Wufei has a stupid girl following him and Heero is just plain insecure. And each person thinks that the other two would be better off with each other. Quatre is making some demands on Trowa about their relationship which, quite frankly, Trowa just doesn't understand.

This chapter starts off where I last ended (obviously), that is after Trowa and Duo have been saved from the deep-freezer on L4, at a floral exhibition. It was supposed to have been, originally, Trowa and Heero's mission but the other three messed with the mission specs so Duo could go instead of Heero (because they were unsure of Heero and Trowa's relationship). So, now at the Winner residence, they are dealing with the aftermath of it.

Chapter 8

The Winner residence was, if nothing else, comfortable. The entire suit had been designed by someone with an eye for comfort as well as elegance. However, Duo found the whole thing slightly overwhelming.

The bathrooms had matching tiles, fittings, little towels with the same flower motif as the tiles and even the toothbrushes, he saw with alarm, was embossed with the same design. He wondered if the designer had had the personnel re-made after the place was completed so they wouldn't clash with the coloring.

He pressed the flush button and watched the air-nozzles swivel around, not wanting to go back and confront Heero and the rest of the gang. Then he smiled to himself -- it was not just him who was in trouble. Wufei and Quatre would also get to share the blame and in his book, any responsibility that would be divided was better than shouldering the whole thing. So he adjusted his hair, blew his nose into a tissue, threw it into the toilet bowl, flushed again and sauntered out, hands in his pocket.

"I think I'm coming down with a cold," he said, walking over to the rest of the group and sitting down on his chair. He took a peek at Wufei, who was sitting stiffly due to broken ribs and a nervous disposition, then at Quatre who seemed to be finding the fabric of his chair more fascinating than his company.

They all looked at him with varying degrees of relief, apart from Heero who simply looked blank. "So," said Trowa finally. "Let me get this straight. You thought I was sleeping with Heero."

"I don't think they meant sleeping," Heero interjected. "Fucking, maybe."

"We're trying to be polite here," Wufei snapped sharply. "Heero, if you don't want to…"

"Shall we just drop the whole thing," Trowa interjected. "And get back on topic. How can you think I'm sle…fucking Heero all of a sudden?"

"Well, pal," Duo said a little scathingly. "It's not as if you two haven't done that before."

"Doesn't mean we are now," Trowa said equally pointedly.

"I thought the three of us were together," Heero finally said, sounding slightly confused. "So why would I be fucking Trowa?"

"Exactly," Wufei mumbled. "Why would you go off…"

"Probably because the two of you," Trowa indicated to Wufei and Duo with raised eyebrows. "Were going behind Heero's back and acting like a couple of jerks. I can't believe the two of you… no make it three of you, hacked into Une's mainframe and changed the mission specs so Heero wouldn't be paired off on a mission with me."

"Now you're going to run to her to tell on us, are you?" Duo sneered suddenly, realizing just how much trouble they were in. He was acting tough to hide just how scared he was – of all of them he had the most to lose if Une decided to kick them out of the Peace Keeper force. After all, no one in their right minds would let Heero go. Trowa was invaluable to Une, and Quatre was the Winner of Winner enterprises. Wufei was Sally's adopted brother, Shaun was her adopted son and she would as soon let go of either as cut off her own arms. That left Duo, with no one to sponsor him and…

"Do you really think of me as some sort of sex maniac?" Trowa growled. "That sob story you told me over here… was it some lie you cooked up so I'll keep my paws to myself?" He was looking at Duo as he spoke.

Duo felt as if he had been ploughed into by a runaway spaceship – after all that they had shared in the cold compartment, how could Trowa think that… "No!" he shouted jumping to his feet. "I don't lie. How dare you think I was lying to you about something that important? I told you what had happened to me because…" To his shock, Duo realized he could feel tears threatening to fall. He, at his age, crying because of what had happened would be humiliating. Worse, it was so pathetic this was what he was reduced to… Duo wished he could die on the spot. "No!" he said, stepping towards Trowa, his face red. "It wasn't a lie you moron and I didn't think you'd jump my bones. You're not the type to do something like that and…."

"Trowa," Quatre said stepping in. "I think that's enough. I know you're angry but really there's no need to take it out on him alone. Both Wufei and I contributed to it as well."

"We did sneak into Lady Une's office and hack into her system," Wufei said, looking uncomfortable. "It wasn't exactly the sort of thing…"

"That's unlike you," Heero observed suddenly. "Duo…I can imagine him doing something like that but the two of you are so…direct with you actions…"

"I think you just insulted me," said Duo, falling back into his chair and digging for a tissue as his nose started stinging. He could feel a sneeze build up on top of his headache and it was very annoying.

"I have a right to be angry," Trowa ground out, his voice still quiet. "You think I'm some sort of sex maniac."

Suddenly Heero started to laugh. Not in a sarcastic way, nor like a maniac, but in a low chuckling sort of way as if he'd just found something deeply amusing. It was rather alarming since the last thing any of them felt at that moment was humor.

"Heero," Duo said tentatively.

"You really like me," Heero managed to gasp out.

"Uh," said Duo.

"What!" said Wufei.

Quatre wondered if he was included in 'we-like-Heero' fan club. "I don't think it's funny," he said carefully.

"It's not funny," Heero agreed. "But I was worried you two didn't want me anymore."

"Whatever gave you that idea," Duo said dryly. "Here we are all risking our necks and privates in the face of Lady Une's wrath and…"

"Exactly," said Heero, sounding slightly excited, which was so uncharacteristic of him that even Trowa sat up straighter. "You must really want me with you if you went through all that trouble to make sure I don't go and screw Trowa."

"Um," said Duo, looking slightly thoughtful. "Yeah."

"Well, you were the ones who told me Heero and Trowa don't think like normal humans," Quatre said pointedly. "Or something like that. It was so long ago."

"This was not exactly the point," Trowa said then stopped. "I think it's best if we break this up. Quatre and I'll go and discuss this in another room and the three of you can do whatever you want here."

"When did he start giving out orders?" Duo asked with a wry grin. "Fine, I think it's a good idea, too."

He waited in silence as Trowa stood up and looked at Quatre who nodded his acceptance of the situation. "Will you guys be all right?" he asked as he started to walk towards the door. "Call room service if you want anything and don't forget we have an Earth-bound shuttle in two hours time. Be ready to leave by then."

"Is it just me or is that guy getting a mother complex?" Duo commented to no one in particular as he walked to the door to engage the lock.

"He's just being the perfect host," Wufei replied a little thoughtfully. "I guess, old habits die hard."

"Well, now that we're by ourselves, can we just get on with the topic at hand?" Duo inquired. "I suppose the first thing is Heero, we're sorry we even thought that you were fucking Trowa and there is no excuse for what we did."

"Agreed," Wufei said, sounding forced but honest. "It was a spur of the moment insanity with the three of us. I suppose though we are together, we really don't know each other that well."

"I'm just happy you thought I was worth the trouble," Heero replied seriously, his voice no longer deadpan but earnest. "It means that you do want me around."

"There was never any question of that," Duo replied a little bitterly as his earlier doubts returned. "It is never you that people get fed up with."

"You seem confident of that," Wufei said, looking straight at Duo. "Spill it Maxwell, what do you have on your mind."

"Me," Duo replied. "Soon enough you're going to realize that I'm not going to be able to bottom for you and …"

"That wasn't an issue before," Wufei said, sounding irritable and uncomfortable at the same time.

"You didn't like it," Duo all but wailed, remembering his rather botched up attempt at sex with Wufei. "I hurt you."

"I don't mind bottoming," Heero said suddenly. "I think it's rather enjoyable. Wouldn't mind bottoming for you."

"You do!" Wufei said before he blushed then turned away. "That's …."

"….new," Duo finished weakly. "You don't waste time on small talk, do you Heero?"

"Do you need to be persuaded?" Heero asked, looking slightly puzzled. "Since the three of us are together, I didn't think I had to go through the whole procedure of courting you."

"Courting him!" Wufei shouted.

"Courting me!" Duo echoed.

"Both of you," Heero replied with a frown. "Well, not at the same time, maybe one after another."

Duo groaned and sank into the chair closest to him. "Heero," he managed weakly. "Where did you learn the art of conversation, off the back of a cornflakes package?"

"I didn't know there was a proper etiquette for asking one of your boyfriends to fuck you," Heero replied in a tone which would have been funny if not for the fact he was utterly serious.

"I think we should impose a time limit on this sort of conversation," Wufei replied. "It's something that's best taken in small doses. And Yuy, why are you stripping?"

"I was under the impression that's what you do before sex," Heero said calmly, but when he looked at the other two he smirked knowingly. "Say you don't want to and I can put my clothes back on."

"NO!" shouted both Duo and Wufei, before looking at each other embarrassed.

"Uh," said Wufei sounding slightly stifled. "You could …Duo….I don't think I'm up to anything like that today." His voice was laced with regret as he said it. Duo got up and stepped up to Wufei.

"Bad, huh?" he asked, sitting in a corner of the chair carefully. "You in pain?"

"Not much," Wufei admitted but close up, Duo could see that his eyes were glazed with pain. "I'm fine, just don't think I'm up to any strenuous physical activities."

Suddenly, Duo jumped as Heero leaned over him and put a hand on Wufei's shoulder. "Do you want any painkillers?" he asked. Duo decided that having a shirtless Heero leaning over him from behind was very distracting in a good or a bad way.

"No," said Wufei, trying to get to his feet carefully. "I think I'll just go and lie down in the bedroom. You two can carry on with…" Duo leaned back against Heero and scowled. He was sitting down while Heero was standing so his head brushed against Heero's belt, his hair snagging on the metal studs, but he made no move to withdraw.

"What?" asked Wufei. "Do you want the bedroom?"

"We want you in the bedroom with us," Heero said firmly. "We're together so it's not fair if you can't join."

"The least you can do is watch," Duo suddenly suggested with an impish grin. "We'll put on a good show for you."

"I…I…." Wufei stammered his face turning red but he wet his lips and his eyes looked brighter and more alive than they did before. His entire face took on an eager look as he looked at the two, then realizing he was giving himself away, he bit his lower lip and looked down at his lap where his hands were clasped tightly.

"Hey," said Duo, leaning forward, catching Wufei's lips in a kiss. He sucked at the lower lip, and then withdrew before it could deepen. "Come on, Wu…We're in this together, remember."

Heero did not give Wufei room to answer, as he circled Duo (pulling strands out of his braid in the process) and scooped up Wufei easily in his arms. Wufei made a noise, which was almost a squeal, though he'd have never admitted making such a noise. "You don't understand," he protested as the hand from his uninjured side wound around Heero's shoulder for balance. "I'm … I'm…"

"Shy," Duo injected though he thought horny was as good as any word to describe it. "Don't worry, we won't shock you, too much."

In reply, Wufei's face turned a shade of deep red that had Duo chuckling fondly. Despite his tough exterior, Wufei was something of a softie. The same could be said about Heero, Duo thought, as Heero carried Wufei into the bedroom and placed him carefully on the side of the bed. Winner residence beds were as grand as everything else, which meant they were large and had plenty of Duo pulled out a couple of pillows from under the comforter and placed them under Wufei so he could sit upright and on impulse, kissed him on the forehead.

Then he stared at Heero… Heero minus his shirt, who was in the process of taking off his shoes, and felt his libido stand up and beg. Then he looked at Wufei who was trying hard not to look, and smiled. He sat on the corner of the bed and started removing his shoes as well. "This isn't really a solution you know, he added conversationally. "Our problems are not going to go away from a nice long fuck."

"We don't have the time to," Wufei said in a strangled voice. "We have a shuttle to catch, remember?"

"Nothing to do about that," Heero said with a shrug. "We can discuss things later on. For now, can't we just …"

"One question, Heero," Wufei said in a small voice, sounding hesitant. "It might be personal so, you don't have to answer this if you don't feel like…"

Duo perked up at that, wondering just what exactly Heero was going to be asked.

"I don't think I have that many secrets," Heero said with a shrug as he started on the top button of his jeans. "If you ask, I'll most likely answer."

"About your preference of not wanting to be–" Here, Wufei struggled for a bit before he could say the word. "…fucked from behind. Why is it?"

"I wasn't raped, if that's what you mean," Heero said with a shrug. "But when I was being trained by Dr. J. one of the exercises to increase my lung capacity was to strap me face down onto a plank and lower me into a large body of water. I almost drowned in it and sometimes, when I'm held from behind … like that, it sort of reminds me…" Duo couldn't help it. He flung himself at Heero and hugged him before the rest of the sentence could be completed.

"I hope you are not going to add something sentimental but useless like, wait till you get your hands on Dr. J. so you can return the favor," Wufei said dryly from his perch.

Lifting his head from Heero's shoulder, Duo thought with slight amusement that Wufei resembled a prince watching over other's proceedings. In answer he stuck out his tongue and was rewarded by a faint smile from Wufei. Duo would have added something more but at that moment Heero's hands closed on his chest and he was distracted.

Turning his head to a side, Duo caught Heero's lips in his and the taste of his boyfriend – all right one of his boyfriends – caught Heero's lips in his and sucked, yelping a little when he was bitten in response. Exploiting the momentary breach in his defenses, Heero's tongue sneaked into his open mouth, stroking possessively over gums and palate, in a way that was probably making Wufei blush, just from watching." Heero's hands roamed over his back, kneading his shoulders, the tongue in his mouth probing deeply. Duo shuddered when a knee pressed between his legs and Heero pulled him more firmly against himself. Duo knew that maybe, just maybe, there should have been other issues they should have discussed first but just then, he didn't care because Heero's hands were surprisingly gentle as they ghosted over his body and made him shiver with sensation and something that different was valid enough to distract him from his issues

Heero eased Duo down on his back, the bed catching him, and Heero moved over him. He moaned as Heero released his mouth, only to gasp as those hot lips kissed and nibbled their way along his jawline to his ear. He thought he heard a small sound of arousal from the corner of the bed where Wufei was surely watching them.

It seemed that they he had not imagined the sound since Heero looked up, his body still pinning Duo to the bed, and glanced over his shoulder at Wufei. "Do you have any requests?" he asked his voice strangely hoarse in a way that made Duo feel excited.

"You're both wearing far too many clothes." Wufei, it seemed, was also having some sort of throat problem, Duo thought with an internal smirk.

Standing up Heero pushed down his jeans and stepped out of them quickly in a way no one wearing tight jeans should be able to do, and then turned his attention to Duo. Duo tried to keep himself under tight control as Heero carefully and slowly opened his zipper and slid his hands down the sides of Duo's hips, stroking down his legs and pulling the jeans down with the same movement. Duo kept his eyes open, his body relaxed, as Heero gently eased away his underwear as well. A small part of him asked whether giving Heero free reins now would mean Duo was going to bottom later on but his more rational part pointed out that Heero was not the type to go back on his word.

Heero dropped the pants on the floor and knelt between Duo's legs, letting his hands wander over his limbs even as his eyes wandered over the lithe form. Duo knew he wasn't exactly a pleasant sight but well, neither Heero nor Wufei seemed to have complained about his skinny legs so far so maybe, they did not dislike them. Somewhat.

There was a sound of annoyance from the corner of the bed where Wufei resided and they both looked up questioningly. "Do you think you could move a little bit to the centre," Wufei asked, his face red with embarrassment but his pants tenting with obvious arousal.

"Knew he was the pushy type," Duo quipped as he scooted backwards so he was no longer lying along the edge of the bed. Heero followed him silently. "Anything else, Master?" he called out teasingly to Wufei who was shifting a little as if to ease the pressure between his legs without touching himself.

There was a pregnant silence followed by a flying tube of lube which landed between Duo and Heero on the bed.

"You had it on you?" Heero asked, sounding as amused as he could under the circumstances.

"No," Wufei sounded mortified. "I found it on the night stand. I have a feeling either Quatre anticipated this or he wanted to use it himself."

"Well," said Duo in mock thoughtfulness. "We might have to use it then. What do you think Heero?"

In reply Heero looked down at both of their semi-erect states and smirked. He slowly lowered himself so his groin ground against Duo, hard, then drew back again as if to admire the outcome.

"Oh," said Duo, staring down at the obvious evidence of Heero's arousal, "it's a good place to start." He surged forward, using his hands and legs to topple Heero over, and rolled on top of him. He slid one leg around Heero's hips, shifting carefully until he could feel Heero's erection against his own, drawing small breathless sounds from both of them. There was the sound of someone else drawing a sharp breath, Wufei, and Duo realized with a start, he was getting off on someone else watching them. "Remember who's going to top," Duo told Heero teasingly as he lowered his head for a brief kiss. While the tone was teasing, they all knew Duo was only half joking. He was seeking reassurance that everything was going according to plan.

In reply, Heero pulled down Duo on top of him, seeking his lips once again. The kiss went on endlessly, hips thrusting and sliding together until both were trembling and needy. Heero shuddered as Duo licked and nipped his way down his jaw to his throat, then proceeded to explore every inch of that body which was, after all, his to do as he wished. Heero writhed against him, his eyes wide open, his mouth parted slightly, and Duo felt the thrill of being in control. He sat back on his heels, Heero lying beneath him and started to work on the next phase of it. He nibbled his way down the Heero's chest, admiring the scars. He knew almost all of them but never got over the thrill of exploring. He was also learning that this spot produced an aroused gasp, while this spot, an erotic movement of the body under his mouth. He caressed his tongue around the small point of a nipple, grazing it lightly with his teeth. Obtaining both an arching of the body and a slight moan at this maneuver, he tried it on the other side, a bit more sharply, following it up with a deep suckle, holding the nub within his teeth.

In reply, Heero pressed his hips up into Duo's abdomen, rubbing his thigh between the muscled legs pinning him down.

"Aaaah..." Duo punished the distraction with another sharp bite just below Heero's nipple, but leisurely stroking his tongue along the expanse of skin and deeply into the hollow of his abdomen, tasting sweat and skin.

Heero's head fell back on the bed, his body relaxing, his limbs splaying a little bit more as if to indicate that the anticipated event was about to start. Duo knew the drill well enough to pick up the lube from where it had fallen.

Heero looked as if he was looking forward to the event; there was no fear in his eyes and Duo felt more anxious about the next step than he had been with Wufei. With Wufei, it had been a desperate bid to mark his territory, to make sure his then boyfriend would not drop Duo in favor of Heero but now, it was more than that. He was trying make sure that Heero did not feel as if he was third wheel in their relationship.

Holding Heero's gaze with his own, he opened the lube and squeezed some of it into his hand. He knew Heero could take some pain, he knew Heero was quicker to heal than Wufei if he botched it up, but the point was, Duo didn't want it to be painful or unsatisfactory. He wanted to do it right for the sake of all of them. He moved to stroke a newly slickened finger against the puckered opening and carefully pressed his finger inward, watching Heero's reactions until he had adjusted to the small. Moving and caressing inward, a second finger joined the first, stroking and stretching the opening until Heero was, again, gasping for breath and squirming. He added a third finger, for good measure and scissored his fingers until he could be sure Heero was ready for something bigger. Not that Duo thought of himself a large but still, he was going to do this right. Heero reached out with one hand and clutched Wufei's ankle the only thing within reach.

Slowly, Duo removed his hand, used the remainder of the lube on his cock and pressed his cock against the tight opening, pushing steadily until the head slid inside the tight ring, bringing a breathless gasp to both men's lips. Slowly pressing inward, he moved until he rested his head on Heero's shoulder, shuddering with the force of his pleasure, his entire body thrumming with the need to move.

Eventually, Heero shifted his legs to gain leverage, and began rhythmically squeezing and tightening around Duo's cock, arching his back as his movements stimulated his prostate. Grinding his hips downward, he pulled back to look deeply into Duo's eyes, taking charge of the situation so that Duo would not flounder around too long.

Duo shifted his hands to Heero's hips, helping him to find a rhythm that had both of them panting. Duo felt his thrusts becoming fast, tighter and all he could do was give into his instincts and let his hips do all the work. All too soon, it felt as if the world was about to blow up and then he was coming in uncontrollable spurts, filling Heero, even as he slumped on top of his lover.

They both lay gasping for a little while before Duo realized that Heero was still hard and pressed against his hip. He moved sluggishly to touch his lover's erection but his arms seemed to have been made of noodles and his body announced that it was comfortable where it was and did not wish to move. He pulled out of Heero as gently as possible and rolled to the side, still breathing a little in small gasps, trying to get his wits together so he could start working on Heero.

But before Duo could sit up, Heero rolled to his knees and climbed over Duo, crawling towards Wufei on his hands and knees. Duo turned his head to watch Heero move like a cat towards their other lover, semen running down the back of his thighs. Duo managed to push himself up to an elbow as Heero reached a flushed and out-of-breath although he was probably also hard Wufei. He watched as the two kissed a little, while Heero gently eased out Wufei's weeping erection. Wufei made a half-hearted sound of protest; Heero smothered it by pushing his hand inside Wufei's pants and between his legs, probably stroking his balls or his perineum.

Wufei made a strangled sound and his head fell back as Heero bent down and took his cock in his mouth. Duo sat up slowly – he had not recovered enough to get an erection but the rest of his mind was getting interested in the proceedings. He watched as Heero's dark head bobbed up and down between Wufei's legs and how Wufei's hand stroked Heero's back and then finally found its way to Heero's semen slicked hole. Duo watched Heero being finger fucked by Wufei, while he gave Wufei a blow job and wondered if there was any way he could join the fun. Heero's free hand sneaked between the two of them and from the rhythmic way it moved, it was obvious he was bringing himself to completion as he sucked Wufei.

Duo was still debating the issue of joining the other two when Wufei stiffened, his eyes closed, his face contorted into an expression similar to pain and from the way Heero's head jerked it was obvious he had come in Heero's mouth. There was a second delay and Heero's hips gave an answering jerk and Duo knew Quatre was going to have these sheets laundered discreetly.

It felt good but at the same time, Duo felt slightly left out as his two lovers panted for breath. Maybe, he should have done more.

"What do you think those three are going to do??" Quatre said with a small smile as he led Trowa into an open balcony. The balcony overlooked the space port and they could see the coming and going of cargo ships, backed by an inky black sky speckled with stars and asteroid beacons.

"Talking about world peace," Trowa said lightly as he walked up to the very edge and placed his hands on the railing.

Quatre snorted and moved until he was standing next to Trowa, their shoulders brushing lightly. Trowa looked down, concluded that the bodily contact was not accidental and decided to hold his place and see where it was all headed. He stood silently, watching the blond next to him move a little and swallow a couple of times.

Then Quatre finally gave a nervous laugh and said, "This isn't as easy as I thought it'd be."

"Tell me about it," Trowa agreed though he had no idea whether they were agreeing on the same thing.

"I had a talk with Duo and Wufei," Quatre said.

"About whether I was still sleeping with Heero," Trowa supplied, his voice mild.

Quatre's head bowed a little but his shoulder stayed firm. "No," he said. "About my expectations … of what I seemed to think should be involved in a relationship and …"

"Settling for second best," Trowa supplied.

"No." A firm shake of the head. "About what I was doing wrong." A sigh, then the fair head turned towards him slowly, and Quatre looked up. "I'm sorry."

Trowa felt his heart freeze, a feeling he was unfamiliar with. "Sorry," he repeated stupidly. "Why?"

"Because I should have done something instead of letting you shoulder the blame while I did nothing," Quatre said. "I was thinking … that maybe we should start over again."

"W…what do you have in mind?" Trowa asked, hoping it was not along the lines of them meeting new people.

"Perhaps a lunch date," Quatre replied and Trowa blinked in surprise.

"I should have made my intentions clear the first time," Quatre continued. "I expected you to know what I was thinking but it doesn't happen that way. We'll go for lunch and maybe spend the afternoon at the theme park, but we'll not be having sex …" A blush at the words but Trowa kept a blank face and Quatre. "… well, not at first. I want this to start out slow."

"Fine."

"Uh," Quatre faltered. "Never mind, maybe it wasn't such a good idea."

Trowa looked down at his hands gripping the railing so hard, his knuckles were white. "What if …we all go. The five of us." Safety in numbers and all that, still, he didn't have to act out of character with his friends. Plus, the five of them have never gone out on a group date… unless it was a mission. "Lunch and then the park, and then … if you want, on Tuesday night, there is an opera you might be interested in… we could go for that … just the two of us and then back home. No sex." There, Quatre was clear on that point so he might as well be.

"I'd …like that," Quatre beamed at him and Trowa wondered if he hadn't made a mistake by agreeing to the no sex clause. "We'll just take it a little slow."

Trowa was not all that dumb. What if Quatre wanted to go slow, he thought. He'd have to get help from Cathy about exactly what that meant but apart from that, it should be fine. And let Quatre take the lead. That way there was less chance of him making any mistakes.

"You know," Quatre said a little hesitantly. "It's been a while since we've played together … I meant music. We've got a fully equipped music room here …right next door… if you'd…"

Trowa nodded agreeably and let himself be led into the large, sparse room where Quatre gave him a flute. An original wooden flute, with a faint trail of flowers down the sides. He planned this, Trowa thought as he started to play. He continued to play when a hand settled on his shoulder gently and another wound around him. He played a few shaky notes as a body pressed against his back and lips pressed to the back of his neck with difficulty.

Finally, he put aside the flute to turn around and pick up the person who was making his fingers clumsy and stiff. As they kissed Trowa decided that things were not as bad as he thought they'd be. Putting his life in danger seemed to have brought out Quatre's aggressive side. So what if things were going to go slow and touching below the waist was strictly prohibited for now. Maybe in a couple of years, they might even be able to jerk off each other.

Zechs looked around and heaved a sigh of relief. They were all headed back to Earth ... finally.

Trowa was sitting beside Winner, absentmindedly fingering a flute, his eyes slightly glazed. Quatre looked as if he'd had a fight with a tiger – and won. At least his hair was mused, his lips were bruised and he had a hickey on his neck. Zechs envied the passion of youth and looked at the people next to the two.

Chang was fast asleep, slumped on Yuy's shoulder while Maxwell fidgeted until Yuy put a hand around his shoulder and pulled him closer as well. Out of the five of them, Yuy looked most unlike his usual self, as if he'd found the secret to the cosmic quantum equation and then some. Oh, well, Zechs thought with an internal shrug. Back on Earth, there'll be problems for all of them. Lady Une had passed on two messages to be given to them. One to Chang from some girl called Jasmine or was it Yasmine and one to Maxwell from his school. Still, there was nothing they could do about it since they were in space, so Zechs decided to let them get some rest while they could.

Shaun was gazing at him with wide eyed admiration Zechs could see was going to spell trouble in a big way. He was partly to blame for not noticing it before – but maybe it was just a short-lived crush. Kids grew up fast and their preferences changed just as fast. He'd just wait it out. After all, he had also survived Noin.

A/n –most of Heero's insecurities have been dealt with. Now he knows the other two want him for sure. I just have to deal with Wufei and Duo and let's not forget, Quatre and Trowa.

And Shaun. It's not nice to leave him hanging. Sort of.


End file.
